The Toon Files Season 10
by Scream96
Summary: Sly Cooper and Carmelita Fox are called into solve a mystery in the Spirit World. Meanwhile, the rest of the Cooper Gang tries to track down a criminal organization, but there's a mysterious madman who is always one step ahead of them...
1. Festival of the Lights

**The Toon Files Episode 118: Festival of the Lights.**

The multi-verse was at a time of peace. The war that was strategically ignited by Harrison Reiner ended 10 years ago, and all the toons were back to working with each other again. The Toon Detective Complex members ended up eventually disbanding, as a lot of them wanted to focus on helping their worlds Jimmy Kudo agreed, and with the fact the databases were badly damaged as was the jail, the TDC eventually closed.

….

In the spirit world, Yubaba's bathhouse was seen as the crème de la crème. Spirits, both those of the dead and those who were born as spirits would come here every night. These spirits came in many different shapes and species. Money was still an object of value in this realm, and Yubaba the witch was the wealthiest being in the land. Haku had eventually returned to working in the bathhouse, though he kept an eye out to make sure the servants weren't being totally mistreated.

"Ah, the profits," Yubaba grinned to herself, using her magic to count the gold that the spirits had paid in the past day. She was smoking a cigarette as she did this; it relaxed her.

"Um, Mistress Yubaba, someone's here to see you," the assistant manager said over the intercom.

"Send them in," Yubaba replied.

Slowly but surely, the magic doors opened and a cloaked figure walked towards the owner of the bathhouse.

"Who are you?" Yubaba asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm someone, who is in need of your assistance…" the figure replied respectfully, taking out a piece of paper….

….

The next day, the spirits of King Caltrin and King Simba had just seen the spirits of Kate and Humphrey reunite outside the bathhouse.

"A touching reunion," Caltrin commented, his thoughts turning towards a loved one he had longed to see for the last decade.

"Don't worry," Simba smiled, realizing Caltrin's thoughts, "Lura has to be here somewhere."

"For the past 10 years I've felt weaker than I ever have, and it had nothing to do with my health," Caltrin said, "She was my strength."

"Just come inside to your reserved tubs darlings," Rarity smiled. The fashion minded pony, since her death, got a major job as an dress designer and feng shui master at the bathhouse, "We have special royal robes just for kings like you."

"Yeah, but what about us commoners?" two voices called. One belonged to Hailey, a 23 year old cheetah spirit and Yoko, a 24-year old hyena spirit. As it was said, money was still a huge factor.

"Talk to Miguel," Quistis Trepe advised the friends. The SeeD instructor also got a high ranking job at Yubaba's after her murder at the paws of Ghostface.

"Yes Ms. Trepe," Hailey nodded, having respect for the Balamb Garden teacher.

"Reunions are a time of celebration for us all," commented Shifu, who had been a spirit for the past decade "All the lights that shine outside the bathhouse at night, it reminds me of a festival that I celebrated in my world during my life."

"Pray tell, what was it about?" Caltrin asked as the 3 men went inside Yubaba's.

"Well…" Shifu began to smile, recounting the tale.

…..

**The Valley of Peace, China, 1256.**

There were plenty of times where the Valley of Peace lived up to its name. And one particular night during the middle of the summer season was an example of this.

"All right, the Festival of the Lights," Po the panda Dragon Warrior grinned, setting tables at his father's noodle shop, "A time of food, fireworks, family, and more food."

"You said it," Peng the young snow leopard nodded. Peng was the nephew of Tai Lung, and he and his girlfriend Lian moved to the Jade Palace after they helped set up kung fu clubs all across China. In addition to training, he had heard that his Aunt Tigress was now pregnant.

"I love this festival because even some of our enemies are willing to be peaceful," Viper commented, as she was naturally the sweet one of the Furious Five.

"I'll say," Crane nodded, seeing 3 familiar faces approach the village.

One of them was Temutai, a warrior water buffalo who had clashed with Po and his friends many times. He had quite the temper, but could keep it under control.

The next was Fenghuang, she was an owl who was a member of a former Furious Five who ended up turning evil, but had quite the cunning mind.

And lastly there was Taotie, a warthog who relied on inventions rather than kung fu in his efforts to defeat the Dragon Warrior. His son often came with him reluctantly, he was usually bored out of his skull.

"You all know this is temporary, right?" Fenghuang said as she flew down and settled at a table.

"We know," Tai Lung replied, "And if any of you try any funny stuff, we'll stop you." The snow leopard was being extra cautious with his wife being pregnant.

"You can at least trust Temutai," Temutai said, "My mind is at peace."

"Sure it is," Tigress said under her breath.

"Let's get this festival started!" Taotie cheered.

…

Pretty much all of the Valley's residents were gathered in the village to watch the fireworks light up the night sky.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Peng asked Lian.

"It is," Lian nodded, sneaking Peng a quick kiss.

Po was eating more noodles at one of the tables in Mr. Ping's noodle shop. The 3 adversaries had stayed nearby, as someone always had their eyes on them.

The party seemed to be going perfectly, when all of a sudden, Zeng, a goose who helped with odd jobs around the Jade Palace, came running down the massive flight of steps that led up to the building.

"Zeng, what's the matter?" Shifu asked, concerned.

"It's your son's sword, sir," Zeng explained, "It's gone missing!"

"How can that be?" Tai Lung frowned, having overheard the conversation, "I locked it up safely in storage this morning after training."

"Well it's not there anymore," Zeng panted.

"Looks like we have another mystery on our paws," Po smirked, stepping up. He remembered how he, Tai Lung, and Tigress solved a murder a few years back, which was right before they discovered other worlds.

"Let's head back up to the palace," Shifu said, "Viper, Monkey, you two keep an eye on our "guests."

"Yes master," they bowed.

…..

Po, Tai Lung, Shifu, Tigress, and Zeng went back up to the Jade Palace. "I'll prove it to you," Zeng said to the kung fu masters, pointing to the storage door. The door had clearly been damaged.

"Someone must've broken in," Po realized.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious, big guy," Tai Lung teased, but his thoughts went back to his missing hand-me-down that had been given to him by Shifu.

"When was the last time you saw the sword, dear?" Tigress asked, hoping to be able to narrow the time frame of the crime down.

"Like I said, it was right after we got done with our training," the snow leopard explained, "I let Peng use it for a few minutes, and then I put in back in storage and locked the door."

"Right after that we headed down to the village to prepare for the Festival of the Lights," Po continued.

"So the theft happened within the last 8 hours," Tigress figured.

"Do you guys have any possible suspects?" Zeng asked, wanting to contribute something towards helping solve the mystery.

The kung fu masters stared at the goose, annoyed, disappointed that the answer was not immediately apparent to him.

"There's Taotie, Fenghuang, and Temutai," Tigress pointed out, "They'd like to get their hands on any of our gear, that's not hard to picture."

"But I doubt this was a team effort," Tai Lung commented out, "Those 3 are not the type to team up."

"All right, this is going to be an awesome mystery," Po grinned, "Especially since there is no murder this time….at least hopefully not."

"We should head back to the village," Tigress told the others, "To see if any of those 3 have the sword."

"Do any of you think you'll need an invisibility stone to spy on them?" Shifu asked.

"No, we won't need that," Tai Lung smirked, "Shifu, could you stay here and look for any clues?"

"Yes son," Shifu nodded, trusting Tai Lung's judgment.

"Let's go," Tai Lung said to his wife and best friend.

….

The fireworks of the festival were still going on well into the night. The villagers never seemed to tire of them.

Peng and Lian had gone behind a tree and began to make out, but when they saw Tigress, Tai Lung, and Po return from the Jade Palace, they went to see what was going on.

"What's going on, uncle?" Peng asked Tai Lung.

"Someone swiped my sword," Tai Lung alliterated

"Do you know who did it?" Lian asked.

"We have some ideas," Po replied, trying his best to sound like a dark, mysterious detective, but his efforts were proving to be in vain.

"Namely one of the three of our enemies who is visiting," Tigress said.

"Let's split up and ask questions," Tai Lung suggested, "I'll look into Temutai."

"I call Fenghuang!" Po volunteered excitedly.

"That leaves me with Taotie," Tigress sighed, "Great, I get left with the boring one."

"Don't feel bad Aunt Tigress," Peng said, "You're super smart, this is just another chance for you to show off your intelligence."

"Thank you Peng," Tigress grinned.

"Let's do this!" Po called, taking off to find Fenghuang.

…..

Po found Fenghuang in the branches of a tree that was in the center of the village. The owl was slurping up some noodles that had been given to her.

"Uh, hey Fenghuang, how have you been?" Po asked, trying to sound inconspicuous.

"Fine," the warrior owl replied, immediately realizing this wasn't casual talk.

"Where have you been the past few hours?" Po questioned.

"Sleeping," Fenghuang replied, "Just pure calm and serenity bores me."

"Can anyone attest to you doing that?" the Dragon Warior continued.

"Ok, what are you accusing me of?" Fenghuang replied, realizing what these questions were implying.

"Someone stole Tai Lung's sword from the Jade Palace," Po explained, "And we think it may have been you. After all, you could fly and not need to climb the stairs."

"It wasn't her, Po," Viper commented suddenly, "I've had my eyes on her all day, she didn't have enough time."

"Heh heh, sorry about these questions then," Po apologized.

….

Tigress went over to interrogate Taotie. "Where have you been the last few hours?" she asked the warthog.

"Enjoying these fine noodles," Taotie replied, "This Mr. Ping makes a great batch."

"You said it," the goose grinned, proud of himself.

"Where's your son?" Tigress asked.

"He opted out, said it would be to boring to come here," Taotie explained.

"I see," Tigress replied.

"Why are you asking me these questions, are you accusing me of something?" Taotie asked.

"My husband's sword was stolen from the Jade Palace vault, and we know you like to use fancy gadgets, a sword would fit right into place with a device of yours," she accused coolly and stoically.

"I would not do such a thing, besides, I've been here all day," Taotie said in his defense.

"It's true, I saw him," Mr. Ping nodded.

"I'm keeping my eye on you," Tigress growled to Taotie as she walked off.

…..

Po and Tigress met back up with Tai Lung. He had just gotten done with his mini interrogation.

"Any luck with Temutai?" Po asked.

"Alas, none, big guy," the snow leopard replied, "Crane and Monkey saw him the whole time he was here in the village."

"Then maybe it was someone else after all…." Tigress figured.

It was then that Shifu and Zeng came running down to the village. "We found a clue," Zeng panted.

"What kind of clue?" Po asked excitedly.

"It was a set of footprints," Zeng explained.

"But there was something peculiar about these footprints," Shifu continued, "They were pretty small footprints, which did not look like they belonged to any of the Valley of Peace residents."

It was then a theory hit the heads of the detective trio.

"You figure something out uncle?" Peng asked, seeing a grin form on Tai Lung's face.

"Indeed I have nephew," Tai Lung replied, "I believe we've figured out who stole my sword!"

….

Po, Tai Lung, Tigress, Shifu, and Peng went back to Mr. Ping's noodle shop, where Taotie was still enjoying the fireworks.

"Hey Taotie," Po said casually, "Enjoying the festival?"

"Sure am, Dragon Warrior," Taotie replied, "What, did you want to ask me more questions?" he asked, seeing Tigress back.

"No, we haven't come to ask questions," Tigress smirked in reply, "We've come to accuse you of being the thief!"

"What?" Taotie gasped, falling out of his chair, "How could that be possible? I was here all day, I was even seen!"

"That's right," Mr. Ping nodded.

"That is true," Po nodded, developing a big grin, "You couldn't possibly be the thief, since you were here all day. However, it's a different story….if you had an accomplice!"

"What do you mean?" Taotie asked, beginning to sweat.

"I think your son is here in the Valley of Peace," Tigress explained, "Before you arrived, you told him to sneak up to the Jade Palace. We know how bored he gets following you in your plans, so you knew saying he didn't come along would be a convincing lie."

"And more importantly, this would help you establish your alibi," Tai Lung continued, "By staying here in the village where someone would always be able to see you, you'd give yourself the perfect alibi."

"That explains the footprints Master Shifu found outside the palace," Po said next, "The reason they were so small was that they were from a smaller creature, namely your son."

"And you had him use an invisibility stone as good measure to avoid being seen," Shifu continued, "I wondered if something else was missing from the storage."

"Then were is Bian Zao?" Taotie asked, thinking he had a card to play, "If he helped me to steal the sword, he should still be nearby, right?"

"I can help with that," Lian suddenly spoke up, the young leopardess leading the young warthog into the noodle shop.

"Bian Zao?! Why didn't you get out of the village?" Taotie frowned, his scheme having been foiled.

"Dad, this plan of yours was boring," Bian Zao yawned, "I wanted to enjoy the festival!"

"We found the sword just outside the village, uncle," Peng smiled, handing it back to Tai Lung, who wielded it proudly.

"It may be time to get you back to Chor-gom, Taotie," Po chuckled to the warthog and his son.

"Oh darn," Taotie said in a huff, pounding his head on a table.

"Don't spill the noodles!" Mr. Ping called, concerned for his supply.

….

"This place looks incredible," Simba commented after Shifu finished his story and the 3 men stepped inside the bathhouse.

Because of both Yubaba's magic and her wealth, the bathhouse had grown in size over the years. Besides the servants and slaves who worked there, several of the spirits who were richer were able to buy rooms at the top floors of the complex that they could live in, and often got better perks then those who would just casually visit.

"You haven't seen the half of it," Rarity grinned, "Amazing as this is, this is just the entrance hall. Wait till you see the bathes and the dining areas."

"I can smell the latter already," Simba grinned, licking his lips.

"Excuse me, does a woman named Lura live here? She was my wife," Caltrin asked the pony.

"I believe so," Rarity replied, looking over a chart on the wall.

"Excuse me," a goat named Darrell Chimer, who was a spirit who had been a mortal passed away as opposed to being a natural spirit. He walked between the group rather forcefully.

"That was rude," Simba commented.

"Don't pay him mind," Rarity advised, "He's rich, specifically the kind who let the money go to his head."

What none of them knew was that Yubaba's bathhouse was about to be bathed in a cloak of darkness that resided within…..


	2. Radio Free Revenge

**The Toon Files Episode 119: Radio Free Revenge.**

Things were going on back in places besides the spirit world. In Sly Cooper's world, even 10 years after the war, Sly and his now wife Carmelita Fox were still working for Interpol.

A lot had changed over the past decade. Carmelita had discovered that Sly had been faking amnesia, but agreed to keep it a secret after seeing that despite being on opposite sides of the law, Sly was still truly a hero. Penelope, on the other hand, turned evil and joined with a skunk who tried to destroy the Cooper family lineage from history itself.

Jing King, the Panda King's daughter, eventually joined the group of thieves her father worked with, and she had picked up on her dad's explosive techniques.

"How about we go see how Bentley and the others are doing?" Carmelita suggested. She and Sly were driving through Paris after their most recent busting of a criminal. The Cooper Gang's hideout location had stayed consistent, since it never had been ratted out to the authorities.

"Good idea Carm," Sly nodded, the raccoon had changed into his casual clothes before he left his office, "Murray even said the kids are over there."

….

Sly and Carmelita had two children, Carmen, a raccoon, and Sylvia, a fox. Ironically so, it was the raccoon of the two girls who wanted to be the law enforcement while the fox wanted to be the thief.

The sisters were playing Murray and Dimitri on the gang's PlayStation 4.

"Ah, Sony makes the best games," "The" Murray grinned, "The Murray approves of them."

"Even though we always whoop your butt on multiplayer," Carmen teased.

Sly and Carmelita walked into the door. "Hey everyone, miss us?"

"Hi mom, hi dad," Sylvia and Carmen waved.

"It's only been a few hours Sly," Bentley pointed out with a chuckle.

"Well, working with Interpol we could get called back to the office at the drop of a dime," Carmelita pointed out to the gang.

"We nabbed the materials those counterfeiters were using to manufacture their printing press," Jing said.

"And you two arrested them," the Panda King concluded.

"We are awesome like that!" Sly smirked, even in his 30s he still had his boyish charm.

"Awesome, in law enforcement," Sylvia said.

"But these guys are awesome thieves," Carmen retorted to his sister.

Murray looked at the clock on the wall. "Oh crap!" the hippo exclaimed, "It's almost 6! I'm gonna miss it!"

"Miss what?" Sly asked.

"The ModNation Racing finals," Murray explained, running over to the TV set and turning it on, "They already had the underground circuit last night."

"I heard there was an incident at that," Carmelita recalled.

"There was," Bentley nodded, pulling a news article up on his computer, "Turns out quite the mystery happened the other day…."

…

**Citadel Heights, ModNation, 2010.**

Tag was one of the best performing racers to ever hit the ModNation Circuit in recent years. His Uncle Richard tried to sabotage his rise to fame, but was ultimately foiled. Tag, whose karts were very colorful and unique in design, liked to race in both official tournaments and more underground kart racing.

In the city of Citadel Heights, there was an underground race going underway. The rules for underground racing were a bit different from official tournaments. While there was a set start and a set finish line, racers didn't need to start the race all at the same time.

"You can't stop me," Tag grinned to the other racers. He arrived to the starting line late, but his skills allowed him to make up for lost time.

As he drove through the back alleys of the city, he could see a Commentators' truck that Biff and Gary, two commentators who were hosts of the ModNation tournament, covering.

"This is so amazing driving Gary," Biff said, he was the more attention hogging of the two.

"Sure is Biff," Gary replied, "Though I can barely tell since I have to drive the truck."

"You're the less handsome one," Biff replied smugly.

….

Halfway through the track, as Tag approached an old tunnel that was deemed out of commission for public transit but still used by racers, he noticed something strange off to the side of the track.

"Wheeler?" Tag gasped, seeing one of his old racing buddies had crashed into a light post and had passed out from the impact. Since bragging rights was the only reward of the race, Tag stopped his car and went over to help his friend.

"Who did this to you?" he asked, helping Wheeler get out of his kart. From the dizziness in addition to some sickly laughter, Tag realized Wheeler was drunk.

"It…was….Biff, or maybe it was Gary, or Gretchen….ya know, maybe it was Megan, I can't remember," Wheeler said drunkenly.

"Megan and Gretchen?" Tag asked, escorting Wheeler over to a nearby gas station and calling for an ambulance. He recognized the names. These two girls had two things in common: Both were local internet celebrities, and both were former girlfriends of Wheeler.

"What's with this dandelion painted on your face?" Tag asked.

"I think….my little bro painted it on my face this morning," Wheeler groaned, "I'm gonna sleep now…."

"Should I call for an ambulance?" the gas station attendant asked Tag.

"Yeah, you should," Tag said, "I'm going to get to the bottom of this mystery!" He ran back out to his kart.

….

Tag was more or less out of the race now, but that was not what he was focusing on. He knew where to find Megan and Gretchen, though they were both off doing their shows.

Gretchen hosted a podcast/videocast where she played popular music, discussed news stories, and reviewed recent movies and races.

Tag pulled up to her apartment complex and asked what floor she was on.

"Floor 7, room 18," the complex owner said to the expert kart racer.

"Thanks," Tag replied, getting in the elevator to head upstairs.

…

Gretchen had just wrapped up her 3 hour podcast as Tag knocked on her door. "Tag? What are you doing here?" the podcast host asked.

"I came here because of Wheeler," Tag explained, "Someone caused his car to crash, and he thinks you might've been the one to cause it."

"That's absurd, how could he accuse me of something like that?" Gretchen demanded to know.

"Well, truth be told, he told me a lot of names," Tag admitted, "But I figured I'd check you out first, you were his most recent girlfriend."

"Well, when did this happen?" Gretched asked.

"The underground race started about 1 hour ago now," Tag recalled.

"Then it couldn't have been me," Gretchen explained, "I've been here, doing my show. I have hundreds of witnesses!"

"What if you just played something you prerecorded?" Tag theorized.

"That wasn't it, the chatbox is live in my stream," Gretchen said, "Besides, Wheeler stopped by at the start of the show!"

"He did?" Tag asked, surprised.

"And I can prove it," Gretchen said, going over to her computer, "I record the whole show every week."

…

Tag watched as Gretchen showed him the footage of tonight's show. The livestream started at 6 P.M. on the dot, as Gretchen was known for her exact timing.

During the broadcast, Wheeler showed up around 6:30, and left at 6:45.

"Why did he even stop by?" Tag asked.

"We still keep in touch," Gretchen said.

Tag watched the some more excerpts from the show. Gretchen talked about how she decided not eat a salad on the air this week, as the sound of chewing a food could annoy some viewers, and that she did not want to talk about the recent scandal involving the mayor of Citadel Heights, as she wanted her show to be one of entertainment, not political views.

"Your alibi checks out," Tag said, "I'll be getting back to my kart now."

"Yeah, you should," Gretchen nodded, "I'm a tech expert, I have a lot to do."

…

Tag drove across the city, dodging some karts who were still in the final stretch of the underground race.

Megan's apartment was in the southern part of Citadel Heights, and Tag knew where to go.

When he arrived, he knocked on Megan's door.

"Oh hey Tag," Megan smiled, letting him in, "What brings you here?"

"I'm here because Wheeler thinks someone caused him to crash his kart," Tag revealed, "And he thinks you're possibly one of the people who could've done it."

"I'm possibly one?" Megan asked, confused.

"It's a long story," Tag admitted, "But I need to know what you were doing for the last hour or so."

"Tag, don't you even listen to my radio show?" Megan frowned, "These are hours when I'm on the air."

"Does anyone have a visual of you when you're doing your show?" Tag asked.

"No," Megan admitted, "But look at my equipment."

"What about it?" Tag asked.

"Do you really think I could rig up some way to broadcast from my car? That's impossible."

"But you play several songs back to back," Tag suggested, "You could've driven to a predetermined spot."

"Where did you find Wheeler?" Megan asked.

"By the West End tunnel," Tag said.

"That would take 25 minutes to there and back if I hurried," Megan said, "My music montages take 15 minutes at the most."

"Point taken," Tag admitted, "Sorry about this."

"Eh, don't mention it," Megan shrugged, as the kart champion left her apartment.

…

Tag began to feel that perhaps the key to the mystery lied still on the circuit the kart racers were driving on. It wasn't hard for him to find Biff and Gary's news truck.

"Tag, what the heck?!" Gary exclaimed, swerving out of the way as the kart champ began zipping towards them.

"Sorry about that Gary," Tag apologized, "But I need to talk to Biff."

"I need to whoop his ass…" Gary said under his breath, "What for?"

"My friend Wheeler's kart crashed, and he thinks one of you could've caused it."

"It couldn't have been me," Gary said, "I was stuck at the driver's wheel while Biff got to do all the commentary on the race."

"Wait," Tag realized, "So you never really got a chance to have him in your eyesight?" he asked Gary.

"Pretty much," Gary replied.

"What about awesome me?" Biff asked.

"All right, just confess," Tag said to Biff, "I know you're the kind of guy who will make his onw news story if it will bring in the viewers."

"You're crazy kid," Biff said, "Look at what we have here."

Tag looked at the contents of the van, there was recording software, and two microphones.

"How could I make anyone crash using this junk?" he asked, "It's not like I could just order him to do it."

Tag looked at the microphone, as much as he hated to admit it, Biff had a point.

"Don't go far," Tag advised.

"We're covering the next tournament, of course we won't," Biff pointed out.

…

Tag was running out of ideas. All the suspects had solid alibis. Maybe Wheeler had just crashed on accident, and those names were just going through his mind for whatever reason. He returned to where the crash had taken place.

"There has to be a clue here," he said, looking around the hit light pole. He suddenly saw something running up from the bottom to the top.

"Wiring?" Tag said, puzzled, "It looks like its attached to the light to make it work. This is an old part of town."

But that very fact bothered him. "Why would someone tamper with the light from afar? Were they trying to lure him into this spot, or maybe…."

A realization hit Tag. He ran to where Wheeler was, who had told the ambulance driver he was fine and just needed to sleep.

"Wheeler," Tag asked his friend, "Can you remember anything else from today?"

"Well, I got this stupid flower tattoo this morning," he remembered, "And then come lunch time, I began to feel drunk. That's all I got, man"

"Say, do many people drive around the place around that old tunnel?" Tag asked.

"Nah, that's used really only by underground racers," Wheeler explained.

Tag smirked, he had an idea now of who the culprit was. "I figured out who did this to you," he told Wheeler, "And I know the trick behind their alibi."

…

Tag drove back to Gretchen's apartment. He knocked on the door.

"You again?" Gretchen huffed, "What brings you back here?"

"I'm here again because I figured out how you did it, Gretchen," Tag revealed.

"You think I'm the culprit?" Gretchen laughed, "That's crazy. I was here, doing my livestream at the time of the crime. Wheeler even stopped by!"

"That's why you had to get him completely plastered first," Tag explained, "So he wouldn't realize he's been in his kart, crashed against that light post for hours before I found him!"

"What?!" Gretchen gasped.

"You set up a clever trick, Gretchen," Tag continued, "Since you're good with tech, it's not a stretch of the imagination to figure you used a green screen where the background was footage of him in your room from some time ago, maybe even up to a year ago!"

"That's crazy," Gretchen replied.

"Is it?" Tag responded, "That's why you chose not to eat a salad this week, with it being green in color, your trick would be exposed to all your viewers. And that's also why you didn't want to talk about the mayor's recent scandal. Because behind you was footage of Wheeler then was recorded long before the news came out!"

"Even if I could fake that, how could I have made him crash in that spot?" Gretchen retorted.

"You rigged a device to make that old lamppost light up during the race," Tag deduced, "Your scheme would fall apart if no one noticed him, and that's why you put him in a location only racers go past."

"But where's your proof I did any of this?" Gretchen asked.

"You made one error, that, to be fair, you couldn't have seen coming," Tag explained, "Wheeler's brother painted a flower on his face this morning. And yet…you can't see it on his face on the footage on him in your apartment."

Gretchen gasped, her whole scheme had been found out. "Dang it," she frowned.

"Why'd you do it?" Tag demanded to know, "Were you still upset that he had dumped you?"

"No, it's not that," Gretchen explained, "I got over that, really, I did. I was just annoyed that he would not come on my show for an interview now that he was getting attention for his kart racing skills. Interviewing an albeit minor and local celebrity like that would really be a boost to my ratings, you know?"

"I think he'd be willing to talk with you now," Tag said to the livestream host, "But really, don't do anything like this again in the future."

"Eh, deal," Gretchen smiled, shaking Tag's hand, "Do I have a story now for next week's show…"

….

"What a crazy case," Sly said, looking over the article on Bentley's computer.

"I just wish that rule breaker would've been brought to justice instead of getting off scot-free," Sylvia frowned, having inherited her mother's black and white view on the law.

"Ah, you take these things too seriously sis," Carmen chuckled.

"All right! Go Tag!" Murray cheered, looking at the TV screen.

"Murray, you're being louder than Dimitri's outfit," Bentley groaned.

Jing chuckled at that comment as Dimitri said, "Hey, my suit is greasy sweet!"

It was then that Carmelita's phone started to ring. It had a specific ringtone, so the Interpol inspector knew what it meant.

"It's Interpol Sly," she told her husband, "Get ready to probably be called back on duty."

"And I was looking forward to relaxing too," Sly sighed, but he was always willing to help out.

"Yes Barkley?" Carmelita asked her boss over the phone.

Sly went over to the Panda King and Bentley. "So have you guys been up to anything I've been missing out on?" the master thief asked his friends.

"Not much," the Panda King responded, "Jing is still married, no suitor has not been deemed worthy enough for her yet."

"I wonder why," Sly chuckled mentally, remembering how protective the Panda King was of his daughter after the incident with General Tsao.

It was then Sly noticed a more serious look appeared on Carmelita's face as she was speaking with Chief Barkley.

"Something the matter Carmelita?" Sly asked his wife, concerned.

"This is big ringtail," Carmelita explained, "We best get back to Interpol right now."

"What's going on?" asked Bentley.

"It sounds like we just got a lead on the Crimson Sphere Gang," Carmelita revealed ominously.


	3. Inside Job

**The Toon Files Episode 120: Inside Job.**

Back in the Spirit World, Shifu, Caltrin, and Simba reached the upper levels of Yubaba's bathhouse.

"Amazing," Simba commented, catching a few glimpses at the living quarters of the more wealthy spirits.

"Aw, we have new neighbors," a pleasant female voice smiled. It belonged to Nica Pierce, a rabbit. Her husband Domo was a raccoon, and was standing beside her.

"Well gentlemen," Caltrin said suddenly, "It seems I must be departing our little group."

"How come?" Shifu asked, and then he saw the reason.

There, standing in the hall, was Lura. "It's been so long, my dear," Lura smiled to her husband, the two running to each other.

"I love a happy reunion," Domo smiled.

"Say, could you show me around here?" Simba asked the married couple.

"Certainly," Nica nodded.

….

"These are the private tubs," Domo pointed as he, his wife, and Shifu led Simba through the quarters in which he would spend his afterlife

In the tubs were Nerris, the rabbit detective who had sacrificed himself during the mountain villa investigation over 20 years ago. Mila Anderson, the wolf who had been one of the victims on the flooded world plane case, was in another.

"To think I used to dread water," she chuckled to herself. Since there were so many tubs in close quarters, all the spirits were wearing bathing suits for the sake of modesty.

"I got some bath tokens we can use," Humphrey said to Kate as the wolves prepared to take a dip. Despite the increase in size of the bathhouse, the bathes still operated more or less the same as when Chihiro worked here.

"Taking a dip here looks even nicer then the waterhole," Simba smiled.

"And the dining is to die for…..besides the fact all of us already have," Nica chuckled.

Wildcat still ran a café in the Spirit World, and was one of the few mortals in Yubaba's good graces.

"Ah, Haku, nice to see you again," Shifu said to the river spirit.

"Hey Shifu," Haku replied. Haku had returned to work in the bathhouse after the Toon Detective Complex closed down.

"Is there a problem?" the red panda asked, seeing Haku looked concerned about something.

"There's two spirits down there causing a disturbance," Haku explained.

"It's who I think it is, right?" Shifu figured, making Haku nod in agreement.

…

Down in the bathhouse's entrance hall, Yoko and Hailey were protesting the imbalance among the wealthy spirits and the less wealthy ones.

"We want to be able to enjoy the same baths as everyone else," Hailey demanded.

"This is injustice!" Yoko protested.

"Now, now, the rules were made clear," the assistant manager told the two protestors.

It was then Miguel, a fox spirit walked over to them. "Your cause is quite noble," he said pleasantly, "But I feel trying to start a loud argument will make it worse for everyone here. There are more peaceful methods of protest you can use."

Hailey looked at Miguel. He was a guy who was a natural peacemaker, and could help a lot of people who were in bad moods.

"You're right," Hailey said, "I'll see ya later Yoko."

"See ya," Yoko nodded back.

Shifu then noticed something he didn't expect to see. "Penny Ling? What are you doing here?" he asked the young panda, "You're not dead!"

"I'm not, don't worry," Penny Ling assured, "Because I have a heightened spiritual connection with some of my relatives, I can come here and visit them as I please, I've learned a lot about what the world was like before I was born, from them."

"Really now?" Rarity smiled as she passed by.

"Yes, I even heard what Littlest Pet Shop was like before Mrs. Twombly was the owner," Penny Ling said, beginning to recount a tale.

…..

**Downtown City, Washington, 1995.**

Littlest Pet Shop was quite a different place before Blythe Baxter had come around. For one thing, the "little" part of the title was quite literal. The animals there were all very little. Some of the residents included Chloe the cat who had been reincarnated frequently, Chet the macho horse, Stu the well-meaning dog, and Viv, the music and magic loving rabbit.

The owner was a man named Elwood P. Harvey, and he owned a regular size lizard named Delilah, who liked to try to eat all of the pets to satisfy her big appetite.

Tonight was one of those nights where Delilah was making another attempt to have the pets as a late night snack.

…

This night proved to be moderately successful for the big lizard, as she managed to gulp down Chloe, Viv, and Chet. Stu managed to hide out and avoid getting swallowed.

"Now where did everyone go?" Elwood asked, looking around the shop. He had no idea bout Delilah's appetite. "I was hoping I could show all of them my medal from the marathon."

"Heh heh, they're in me," Delilah chuckled to herself.

"I hope they don't become carbohydrates," Stu said to himself, out of the reach of the big lizard. He saw Elwood set the medal on a hook.

"I should've shown them it earlier instead of leaving it on the table," Elwood said to himself.

"Goodnight Stu," Delilah called, "I hope to see you at breakfast…"

"Eh, I think I'll sleep in," Stu called in response, turning in for the night.

….

By the time the next morning came, Viv, Chloe, and Chet were able to climb out of Delilah's stomach.

"Geez it stinks in there," Chloe said.

"I just don't want to get my hat wet," Viv said as they climbed into the mouth.

"Let's get out of here," Chet said, leaping out of the lizard's teeth.

"I don't want my next reason for being reincarnated to be being eaten by Delilah," Chloe said, going next.

"Whoa!" Viv exclaimed, slipping and falling below the tongue, but she was able to regain her composure after a moment and jump out.

"Hey guys," Stu waved to his friends, "Glad to see you aren't Delilah chow!"

"Thanks for all your help Stu, it was really useful," Chloe said sarcastically.

Elwood came into the room the little animals were in and noticed them. "So that's where you guys are, you sure are good hiders," he smiled. "Hey, there's something I wanted to show you all." He went over to the hook where he had placed the medal, and then he noticed something.

"The medal's not here," he frowned, confused, "That's weird, I was sure I had put it here."

"What medal is he talking about Stu?" Chet asked.

"It's from that marathon he ran the other day," Stu explained.

"It's ok Elwood, you probably just dropped it somewhere," the owner of Littlest Pet Shop told himself, looking in the immediate vicinity.

"We should try to help him find it," Stu told his friends.

"Agreed," Viv nodded, adjusting her top hat.

….

Since the 4 friends were incredibly small, they were able to look in a lot of places Elwood was unable to reach.

"Chet, was it between the pet food shelves?" Stu asked the horse.

"No, partner, it wasn't," Chet replied, "I even tried lifting things up, but that didn't give me any luck."

"Maybe I could try contacting one of my past lives, maybe they saw something," Chloe suggested.

"But your past lives existed before tonight Chloe," Stu pointed out.

"Oh yeah, good point," Chloe replied.

"We should go check by the hook you say Elwood left it on," Viv suggested, "Maybe that will," she then started to say the rest of her sentence in song, "Tell us what happened to it!"

"Good thinking Viv," Stu smiled to his rabbit friend, "Let's go guys."

….

The 4 pets looked at the hook where Elwood had initially set the medal on, and Stu went to get a closer look.

"Something's not right here," Stu noticed.

"What is it?" Viv asked, hopping up to see what it was.

"It looks like some kind of water marking on the hook," Stu explained, "But it doesn't look like regular water."

"And what's that smell in the air?" Chet asked, "It smells kinda tasty."

"You know, I was just getting the thought at literally this exact second," Stu said, hopping back down.

"What's that thought?" Viv asked.

"That perhaps one of you guys took the medal," Stu said in an overly dramatic voice.

Viv, Chloe, and Chet all gave the little dog an eye.

"You do realize where we were last night, right?" Chloe said, "We had been gulped down by Delilah, we were stuck there the whole time."

"Well, maybe one of you managed to sneak out while the others were sleeping," Stu suggested.

"I don't think so, the smell was terrible in there," the feline replied, "In fact, if you want, I'll prove it to you."

"How are you going to do that?" Stu asked, confused.

"Follow me," Chloe encouraged.

…

Chloe and Stu walked over to where Delilah was resting. The mere smell of potential food was enough to wake her up.

"Open up Delilah," Chloe asked.

"So you both are finally accepting your fates? I'm so proud of you," the monitor lizard smiled, opening her mouth wide.

"This is only temporary, you know," Chloe said as she and Stu hopped in.

"Ick, it's so slimy in here," Stu gagged, balancing on the tongue.

"It's just the saliva, get over yourself," Chloe called, signaling for him to slide down the throat right after her. "Just count yourself lucky that Delilah's known to not chew her food."

"Yeah, point taken," Stu nodded, as they slid down towards Delilah's gut.

…..

"You know, this really seems bigger on the inside then it does on the outside," Stu commented as they were walking through the innards of Delilah.

"That's how animation works," Chloe said in a moment that broke the fourth wall.

"So what are you trying to prove here Chloe?" Stu asked his cat friend.

"How it couldn't have been any of us," Chloe explained. "It's true, for a moment we went off in separate directions while we were in here, but that wouldn't be enough time for any of us to sneak out of here, grab the medal, hide it in one of our rooms, and get back inside. It just is not statistically possible."

"You have a point," Stu admitted, "But how are we going to get back out of here?"

Chloe pulled out a rope, "Time for some mountain climbing, my friend."

…..

Stu and Chloe made their way back up towards the teeth of the monitor lizard.

"I really hope this isn't a place I get used to visiting," Stu said, as he did his best to keep his balance and not fall back into the gut.

"We made it," Chloe said, as they climbed back onto the tongue. "Get ready to take a jump for it."

"Gotcha," Stu nodded, but as Chloe did so, the dog clumsily slipped and fell under Delilah's tongue.

"Ack!" he exclaimed, getting covered in the slimy saliva that surrounded him, when all of a sudden, he noticed something weird.

"What is this?" he asked himself, reaching over and grabbing the tiny object, "Is this a piece of fabric? How did it get here?"

"Stu, are you getting out?" he heard Chloe call.

"Be right there!" Stu called quickly, making a running start so that Delilah would not be able to shut her teeth in time to stop him.

…

"Drat, I was hoping for a third course to the great I had last night," Delilah frowned as Stu managed to escape.

"Third course?" Stu asked confused, "I thought gobbled up the three of them last night."

"I did Stu," Delilah smirked, "But during the night, there was such a delicious smell that I went over to the source of it and chomped on it. I couldn't tell what it was, though."

Stu was now getting an idea of what had happened last night. "Did you notice anything else weird Delilah?" he asked, avoiding her claws.

"Well, it did feel like one of them tried to crawl back up, but I put a stop to them," she smirked proudly.

"Delilah, you're a genius," Stu smiled, running across a branch at the top of Littlest Pet Shop.

"Why thank you," the monitor lizard smiled proudly, only to realize that Stu and Chloe had managed to get away. "Oh drat," she frowned.

…..

Stu went over to the birdhouse where Chet and Viv were. Chloe managed to get there before him.

"So what did you guys find out?" Viv asked the dog and cat.

"I just proved how none of us could have been the thief who took Elwood's medal," Chloe informed her friends.

"Actually Chloe," Stu said suddenly, "Thanks to that little trip, I figured out just who the thief is!"

"What?!" Everyone gasped.

"Who is it?" Chloe asked Stu.

Stu spun around, suddenly donning a detective's attire. "I can tell you all right now, that the culprit in the Case of the Stolen Medal was none other than you…Viv!" he pointed at the rabbit girl dramatically.

"What? ME? Are you completely and totally crazy?" Viv sang in shock.

"I'm not, my friend with perfect pitch," Stu replied, "You pulled off a trick of manipulation. You see, you did not complete this theft on your own. You made Delilah your accomplice, an unwitting one, to be exact."

"How is that even possible?" Viv asked.

"You knew about the medal before the three of you got gobbled up last night," Stu explained to his friends. "You probably coated it with some kind of food or just flavoring you knew Delilah would like."

"That explains the tasty smell I smelt after we got out," Chet realized.

"Correct Chet," Stu nodded, "Once you felt that Delilah was moving last night, you took the chance to climb up her throat and towards her mouth. You were right Chloe, a few minutes would not be enough time to do all that, but if Viv kept the medal hidden under Delilah's tongue, that's all the time she would need!"

"How could you possibly guess something like that?" Viv asked.

"The proof was the what I thought was water around the hook," Stu explained, "It turned out, much to my disgust, to be monitor lizard saliva. Once Delilah gulped it up, you hid it under her tongue. I saw how you slipped when you were leaving this morning. That was part of your plan too, you needed to retrieve it. It was a perfect plan, except for one detail."

"And that is?" Viv gulped.

"This piece of fabric," Stu revealed, holding it out. "It belongs to the top hat you always wear, which I believe it will be a perfect fit. Since Delilah said she chewed the mysterious food last night, your hat was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"But why Viv?" Chloe asked.

"Because I wanted to get a medal for my singing," Viv revealed, sounding like an opera singer, "I was hoping to redesign it in my spare time," she pulled the medal out of her top hat, where it was hidden.

"We could make one for you if you wanted Viv," Chloe said, "We're your friends, you don't have to go through crazy stuff like this."

"Thank you guys," Viv said, hugging her friends, as they went to go return the medal to Elwood.

…

"Interesting story," Shifu nodded as Penny Ling finished her tale.

"Plus, as one of the mortals that's not on the menu, I consider visiting here an honor," Penny Ling added.

"Now, I think it's time we all get back to doing our own things," Shifu told Simba.

"Gotcha," the lion nodded.

….

A few hours later, Shifu walked out of his room when he heard a commotion downstairs.

"What's going on?" Ivan Stanton, a mongoose spirit asked.

"Sounds like there's been an incident on the lower levels," Shifu said.

They looked over the railing to see Yubaba, Haku, and Hailey running over to a door.

"What's happened to Yoko?" the cheetah asked, concerned.

"There's been reports of the smell of fire from inside her room," Yubaba explained, using her magic to unlock the door.

Haku had prepared for the worst, and his fears were answered when the door came open, and, in the center of an otherwise clean room, lied the body of Yoko, her body burnt from head to toe, and her eyes were pitch white, no sign of pupils.

"AAAAAAHHH!" Hailey screamed in horror.


	4. Bloody Wash

**The Toon Files Episode 121: Bloody Wash.**

Sly and Carmelita got back into their car. For as many years as Sly had been part of the criminal world, the name Carmelita had just given off was unfamiliar to him.

"Who are the Crimson Sphere gang?" Sly asked on the ride back to Interpol.

"A crime organization that for many years, a lot of people didn't even believe it existed," Carmelita explained. "For what is to be believed as a few decades, they were able to commit a multitude of crimes and be able to completely avoid law enforcement detection. They got this nickname because of glass spheres that were covered in blood being left at that some crime scenes."

"Just like my calling card," Sly said, "Were they thieves?"

"Only occasionally," Carmelita replied seriously, "From what Interpol was able to gather on them, they are likely responsible for many arsons and murders too."

"Don't worry Carm," Sly smirked in his cocky self, "We'll be able to stop them."

"Be serious ringtail," the fox replied, "Chief Barkley will be able to tell you more."

"Gotcha," Sly nodded, "Let's get going."

….

Most of the Interpol officers in the immediate area had regrouped at HQ.

"Inspector Fox, Constable Cooper, you're later," said Brent Snyder, a rabbit officer at Interpol.

"Aw, shuddit, Brent," Sly responded mockingly.

Chief Barkley, a dog, was Sly and Carmelita's boss at Interpol. He had all the available officers gathered in an office as he had a slideshow prepared.

"Thank you all for coming," Barkley told his crew, "As you've been informed, after all these years, we may have a definite lead on the Crimson Sphere gang, thanks to a contact."

"What is this gang?" one of the newer officers asked, raising his paw.

"They've been responsible for a variety of crimes for over two decades now," Barkley explained, "We've determined that there are many members who were recruited over the years, as any patterns in terms of style of the crime constantly changed."

"Our sources suspect there are around at least 7 members," Brent read off, "Witness descriptions of possible members described many different species."

"What is this lead that's possibly our smoking gun?" Carmelita asked her boss.

"I'm glad you asked me that Fox," Barkley replied, pulling up a new slide, "We had a contact from an undersea world. While swimming near the surface, he saw a ship pass by that had the Crimson Sphere logo on it. He reported it to us, but what we examined the boat, none of the fingerprints matched anyone in our immediate databases."

"But this is better than nothing," Barkley's secretary said, "We're cross-referencing it with other law enforcement agencies' databases."

"What exactly can we do to help?" Sly asked.

"Well Constable Cooper," Barkley replied, "We need as many officers as we can to move out as soon as we can ID someone."

"I'll tell Bentley to keep watching the girls," Sly whispered to his wife.

"I need a coffee break," Carmelita sighed.

As the officers went into the different rooms of Interpol, a phone call came into to Barkley's secretary.

"Hello?" she asked, as she was about to be surprised who was on the other end of the line.

…

**City in the Atlantic Ocean, 2004.**

Sometimes, species can look past their differences and get along. Two people who were able to prove this were a fish named Oscar and a shark named Lenny. Lenny was a vegetarian and a son of who was pretty much a mob boss, and because of a recent confrontation, both sides were finally able to co-exist in peace.

The Whale Wash, which Oscar now owned, was now a multi-faceted business, as it helped wash sharks and other large creatures of the deep.

"Hey guys," Oscar waved to some of his newest employees. Their names were Nana, Tom, Lyle, and Colton, "How were your shifts?"

"Mine was fine," Tom replied, as he helped with scrubbing.

"I got the easy job," Lyle smirked, holding a key, "I just activate the wash."

"Yeah, easy for lazy bums like yourself," Nana smirked, "I'm assistant supervisor."

"I'm just a janitor," Colton frowned, swimming up to a vending machine.

"Hey, everyone has to start somewhere," Oscar ensured his new employees, "I have to leave early to meet up with Lenny. I can trust you all to close up shop in 30 minutes, right?"

"You can count on us," Nana replied.

"We won't let you down sir," Tom nodded.

"Good," Oscar nodded, swimming off into the city, unaware of what he was about to get involved with.

…..

Oscar and Lenny had been negotiating with whales and sharks from other parts of the Atlantic into the possibility of creating more whale washes.

"I have to say, being a straight up businessman, no lying, does have its perks," Oscar smiled to his shark friend.

"You said it Oscar," Lenny nodded, showing off his sharp teeth.

It was then that Oscar saw something lying on the surface of the city that got him very concerned. "Hey Lenny?" he asked.

"Yeah Oscar?" Lenny replied.

"You sharks are always supposed to keep moving, right?" Oscar said.

"Yeah, what about that?" the vegetarian shark replied.

"Well, that one sure ain't!" Oscar said, pointing his fins towards a shark who was lying dead on the ground of the city!

"Oh geez," Lenny gasped, zipping down to get a better look at who it was. His eyes widened when he got a better look.

"You know this guy?" Oscar asked.

"Yeah, it's Jackie," Lenny explained, "He was the son of one of my dad's friends."

"I'm sorry to hear that man," Oscar replied, "What do you think happened to him?"

"Well, I'm trying to see what it was," Lenny said, examining the body. After a few seconds, he noticed a big wound on the top of Jackie's head. "It looks like he got bludgeoned with something."

"Do you think it was an accident?" Oscar asked.

"That's the thing," Lenny replied, looking around the immediate area, "If an object falling from the surface was heavy enough to kill a shark, it should be lying around here, I'll keep looking, but…."

"There's a chance he was murdered?" Oscar figured.

"Yup," Lenny nodded with a gulp.

…..

It took only a few minutes for the fish police force, Lenny's father Don Lino, and Angie, Oscar's girlfriend to arrive at the scene of the crime.

"Is it true Oscar?" Angie asked, "There was a murder?"

"Sure looks like it," Oscar replied, "Lenny even knew him too."

"I'm so sorry Lenny," Angie said, offering her condolences.

"Thanks Angie," Oscar nodded, "Dad's taking this real hard, and Jackie's dad's off for a day, he'll have to hear it later."

"So, when did you find the body?" the police chief asked Oscar and Lenny.

"It was just around 8 pm," the friends explained to the cop.

"You," the chief said to Don Lino, "Can you figure out how long he's been dead?"

"I'll give it my best," the leader of the shark gang replied, going over and sniffing Jackie's blood to determine a time of death.

"You sharks can do that?" Oscar asked, impressed.

"Yeah, we can," Lenny nodded, "I don't do that for obvious reasons, though."

"Thanks for telling me that," Oscar chuckled with a slight gulp.

Don Lino's predatory instincts proved to be quite helpful here. "From what I've gathered, I would you say Jackie here has been dead since around 7:30 tonight," he told the chief of police.

"So we have a time of death," he nodded.

….

The search for clues continued over the night. Eventually, a heavy looking rock was found in an alley, and it was determined to be the murder weapon, as a slight trace of Jackie's blood could be smelt on it.

"This still doesn't narrow down a suspect list," Oscar pointed out, "Don Lino, if a shark was to ever try to kill another shark, how would they go for it?"

The Don got a look of confidence that unnerved the non-predatory fish nearby, "Why, we chomp at each other until one of us was…..swimming with the fishes, pardon the pun."

"So that means it's unlikely a shark did this," Angie said.

"But how could a fish do this to a full grown shark?" Lenny asked, "You couldn't just count on a rock falling from the surface at such a high velocity."

"Hey," Oscar suddenly said, swimming over to Jackie's body. He noticed there was something caught under Jackie's dorsal fin. It was a tiny object, but he was still able to notice it.

"What do you see Oscar?" Lenny asked.

"This is a bristle," Oscar realized, "And if my hunch is right, this is the kind we use back at the whale wash."

"Say, you're right," Lenny nodded, he and Angie getting a close look at it as well. "The wash was right above where we found Jackie's body."

"I think there's some fish we need to ask questions to," Oscar said, determined.

….

Back at the wash, Lyle, Tom, Colton, and Nana were doing their usual jobs.

"Oscar, we missed you today," Tom said, "Where were you, man?"

"Did it have anything to do with that dead shark?" Nana asked, "I heard about it on the news."

"Actually Nana, that's precisely why I was gone today," Oscar explained, "I was helping with the investigation."

"So it was a murder?" Lyle gasped, shocked.

"Exaactly," Oscar confirmed.

"Do they know who did it?" Colton asked.

"That's the funny thing," Oscar replied, a little nervously, "When I was looking at the shark's body earlier, I found a bristle by it. A bristle that belonged to the automated wash here."

"So you think the victim was here right before he was killed?" Nana asked her boss.

"Kinda," Oscar nodded, "I want to ask you all if any of you saw anything last night."

…..

The 4 newest employees at the whale wash began recounting their versions of what happened last night after Oscar left.

"I was tending to some last minute paperwork," Nana explained to the manager, "I was in the office, so I was mostly in a soundproof spot, but I think there could've been one more last minute customer."

Oscar went to Colton next. "Did you see anything odd last night, man?"

"I was taking out the trash, I don't know if anyone came into the wash at the time boss," Colton explained.

"There was one more customer after you left boss," Lyle said, "Nighttime's are usually slow here, I was surprised we got that one. I turned on the autowash with the key, he paid for his services, and we left for the day."

"I kinda fell asleep," Tom admitted, embarrassed.

"Eh, I'm not mad," Oscar ensured his employee, "Thanks for answering these questions."

"Don't mention it," Nana replied, as Oscar swam away from the wash.

"You don't think he thought any of us were the killer, do you guys?" Colton asked.

"Well, it wasn't any of us," Tom said, confidently.

…..

Oscar swam back to Lennie and Angie, who were still helping the city's police in the investigation of Jackie's death.

"Were you able to find anything out Oscar?" Lenny asked hopefully.

"Not much, Jackie must've been near the wash after everyone left last night," Oscar explained to his friends.

"Drat," Angie frowned, "I thought that would've been a lead."

"Say, this is odd," Don Lino was suddenly overheard saying.

"What's odd, dad?" Lenny asked, wanting to help solve the mystery.

"It looks like, now that I'm looking at the body again, that Jackie's fins must have been really stretched out when he was killed, they're kind of stuck in this position."

"You're right," Lenny, Oscar, and Angie noticed.

"I still can't figure out what would propel someone to do this to a good guy like Jackie was," Don Lino said.

It was then that Oscar's eyes began to widen. A theory had cropped into his head. A theory that made all the puzzle pieces fit together.

"What are you so happy about Oscar?" Lenny asked, seeing his fish friend smile.

"I'm grinning because I think I know who the killer is," Oscar said, "Lino, I may need your help with this."

"You got it," Don Lino nodded.

….

Oscar swam back to the Whale Wash, where the 4 new employees were still in the middle of their shifts.

"What brings you back so soon boss?" Nana asked.

"I'm back because I've figured out that one of you is a killer," Oscar revealed, making them all gasp.

"You're kidding," Lyle said in disbelief.

"Nope, I'm afraid I'm not," Oscar replied, "The killer made use of our fine establishment to pull off his trick, to boot!"

"Then who is the killer?" Colton asked Oscar.

"I hate to say this, but the killer is you….Lyle!" Oscar revealed, making Nana, Tom, and Colton look at him in horror.

"You're just making a sick joke, right sir?" Lyle asked nervously.

"Sorry Lyle, but I know what you did last night," Oscar began to explain, "There was no last minute customer like a lot of you thought, the creature who showed up here last night was Jackie, the dead shark, himself. You probably told him to go to a predetermined spot, where you dropped the fatal rock on his head. He trusted you enough to not find your request suspicious."

"Then how did he use the wash?" Tom asked.

"He stretched out Jackie's fins so that they would cover the whole space of the whale wash. Turning on the autowash, which is only possible from him because he has the key for it, he was able to use the brushes and bristles to propel Jackie's body forward out of the wash, where it would fall to the ground and thus, he'd be able to hide the true scene of the crime."

"That sounds like quite a creative story, you should sell it to a mystery novelist," Lyle said in his defense, "But where is any proof that I killed that shark?"

"I'm glad you asked," Oscar replied, "Don Lino, come forward please."

"You got it," the shark boss grinned, going over to Lyle and sniffing him.

"Uh…personal space," Lyle said.

"Don't worry, he's just sniffing out a trace of the victim's blood," Oscar explained with a smirk, "And is it a match?" he asked Lino.

"it is a perfect bullseye," Lino grinned, making Lyle frown now that he had been caught, and the police fish homed in on where he was.

"But why would you kill Jackie?" Lenny asked the fish as he was being taken back to the police HQ.

"Because he was going to expose me," Lyle revealed, "I planned to show off your designs for a new autowash to potential buyers and make a fortune. He happened to overhear me starting a deal…."

Lenny saw his father growl at the killer. "How dare you take a life for such a selfish reason," Don Lino growled as Lyle was escorted by the police.

"At least that's over," Angie said.

"This was my second time helping the cops within the past week," Lenny's father said.

"What was the first, dad?" Lenny asked.

"I talked to Interpol from another world," Don Lino explained.

…

Back in the break room at Interpol, Sly had caught up with Carmelita.

"You seem stressed," Sly commented innocently.

"You don't understand the weight of the situation here, Ringtail," Carmelita replied, "The Crimson Sphere Gang's reputation is so infamous, your gang would not even be a blip on the radar compared to them."

"Geez," gulped Sly, "We'll have to stop them as soon as we can."

However, those plans were about to get interrupted when Chief Barkley came into the break room. "Fox! Cooper! I now have the two of you on special assignment."

"Did you track down any of the gang members?" Carmelita asked.

"No, we got a call from Yubaba in the spirit world. There's been a murder in her bathhouse, and she wants officers of the law who have dealt with supernatural cases before."

"And there's no one else who can take this?" Sly asked his boss.

"We'll take it," Carmelita said, pinching Sly's cheek hard.

"This is going to be an interesting job," Sly said.


	5. Mind Over Misdemeanor

**The Toon Files Episode 122: Mind Over Misdemeanor.**

Before they left Interpol, Sly placed a call to Bentley and the gang on his cell phone.

"What are you doing Sly?" Carmelita asked.

"I figured if we won't be in town to help catch this gang, I figured, why not call the next best people for the job?" Sly explained with a smirk, "And after all, if what needs to happen is that databases need to be looked into, Bentley is the perfect turtle for the job."

"You have a point there, Ringtail," Carmelita smirked, taking a sip of her coffee.

"I wonder if the Spirit World will have anything worth stealing," Sly chuckled in a tone that was ambiguous as to whether he was joking or being earnest.

"Sly," Carmelita groaned, annoyed.

"Yeah, bad joke, I apologize," Sly gulped, Carmelita was quite capable of scaring him when she was upset, "Though I will need you to get the gang a copy of some files, it can be physical or digital."

"That can be done," Carmelita nodded, heading towards her office.

…

Bentley over the years had equipped the Cooper Gang van with a camouflage feature so it could drive around town without being recognized.

"Ok Murray, you just have to do regular parallel parking, this is not the destruction derby," Bentley reminded the hippo.

"Don't worry Bentley, the Murray knows how to drive peacefully as well," Murray replied.

"Such nice reassurance," Jing said, bouncing in her seat.

The disguised van pulled up a few blocks outside of the Interpol headquarters.

"Hey guys," Sly said, handing Bentley a hard drive, "This little gizmo is what you'll need."

"It has all the articles on the Crimson Sphere gang," Carmelita explained, "Plus samples of the fingerprints that were uncovered."

"Think you'll be able to figure this out?" Sly asked.

"Are you joking Sly?" Bentley grinned confidently, "With my hacking and decoding, I can decrypt any puzzle I put my mind to."

"Glad to hear," Sly smiled.

"Mom, dad, can we come with you to the spirit world?" Carmen questioned her parents hopefully.

"We wanna help you solve a crime!" Sylvia nodded.

"Now, now, you're both too young to go to a dangerous place," Carmelita told her daughters.

"Aww man," they both pouted.

"We'll take you out for fast food when we get back," Sly offered his children.

"You drive a hard bargain dad," Sylvia replied, "Deal."

"Thatta girl," Sly smiled.

"Fox! Cooper!" Brent Snyder called, the officer nearly out of breath, "Chief Barkley wanted you to have this before you go."

"What is it?" Sly asked.

"It's the general info file we were able to form from what Yubaba said in her phone call," the rabbit explained.

"Thanks," Carmelita replied, looking it over.

"Just call if you need any backup," Brent said, running past the disguised Cooper van.

"Well, shall we get going?" Sly asked Carmelita, opening the doors to their squad car.

"It's now or never ringtail," Carmelita nodded, "Be good, girls," she said to Carmen and Sylvia, "And Carmen, no stealing."

"Drat," Carmen frowned, "Bye mom! Bye dad!"

As Sly and Carmelita drove away, Bentley began uploading the file.

"There's someone we're gonna need to see," the turtle told his teammates.

"Who's that, home slice?" Dimitri asked, looking at his own fan page on the internet.

"Frankie," Bentley responded.

…..

**San Diego, California, 2007.**

There are things in this world that are left up to the imagination, and then there are times where one's imagination can become real. In this particular world, any imaginary friend that a child thought of became a real, sentient being. And while the children of the world would play with them for years, there usually came a time where they would have to say goodbye, and that's where Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends comes in. Madam Foster opened a large house that imaginary friends could live in and be put up for adoption so they could have a new kid to be an imaginary friend to.

Two of the other higher ranking members of the Fosters' crew included Madam Foster's granddaughter Frankie, and the Madam's own imaginary friend, Mr. Herriman the rabbit.

Now, as one can imagine, owning such a large house with so many residents is no easy tasks, and plenty of chores had to be done. Today was one of those chore days.

…..

Frankie was going over the chores list for all the friends of the house. Some of them were for Wilt, a tall, always helpful imaginary friend who loves basketball, Coco, a bird-airplane thing who only speaks in her name, Eduardo, a big furry beast that was quite the softy behind his tough exterior, and Bloo, a small blue imaginary friend who still belonged to his creator, an 8-year old boy named Mac. Mac was currently at school today, and would come to visit as soon as class was over.

"Ok, Wilt, you help make the beds, Eduardo, you help with the laundry, Coco, you do the dusting on the top 3 floors, Bloo, you do the vacuuming."

"Why do I have to do chores?" Bloo whined. Ever since he started living at Foster's, Bloo had gained a noticeably more self-centered personality, though he wasn't totally without merits.

"Because everyone has to, that's why," Frankie replied sternly. Though Frankie and Mr. Herriman didn't always see eye to eye, they both could agree they liked things to be kept sane.

"Ok, I'm on it," Wilt smiled, going off to his chores.

"Si," Eduardo nodded, taking off towards the laundry.

"Coco Coco Coco," Coco said, which translated as "I'm on it."

…

Around noon, Madam Foster came out of her room. "Hey Frankie," the old woman asked her granddaughter, "Have you seen my CD player?"

"Where did you leave it last, grandma?" Frankie asked Madam Foster.

"I left it where I always set it down, on my desk. I went to go wash my hair, and when I came back, it wasn't there anymore."

"That's weird," Frankie said, "Maybe one of the imaginary friends cleaning the rooms accidently knocked it under your table or your bed, perhaps?"

"I thought of that," Madam Foster replied, "But I looked under those, and they weren't there. Could you help me look for it?"

"I'll try grandma," Frankie replied, "But I have to make sure everyone gets their chores done."

"Oh, ok," Madam Foster smiled, "Take your time. Though, you know how I can get when I'm not able to listen to my music."

Frankie realized from that comment that she needed to find the CD player very soon.

…

Frankie began looking through the house to find the CD player. She started on the higher floors near her grandmother's room, but the search provided little answers. Every small nook and cranny of all the rooms showed no sign of Madam Foster's CD player.

"Are you looking for something Frankie?" Wilt asked, stepping out of a door after he finished making one of the beds.

"Yes I am Wilt," Frankie nodded, "Madam Foster's CD player is missing, and if I don't find it within the next few hours I know I'm never going to hear the end of it."

"Can I be of assistance?" Wilt asked.

"Just keep an eye out while you're making the beds," Frankie replied to the tall imaginary friend, "Say, how'd you make a floor's worth of beds so fast?"

"Technically, I wasn't able to," Wild explained, "A lot of the sheets are still in the laundry."

"Ah," Frankie nodded, turning back to look for the music player.

….

It was now around 2 P.M, and Frankie still wasn't able to find any trace of Madam Foster's CD player. She had told the others on the other floors to keep an eye out for it

"We will do our best to locate the operator of music, Ms. Frances," Mr. Herriman nodded.

After spending some more time keeping all the chores organized, Frankie saw Jackie Khones, a small, one-eyed and green imaginary friend walk up to her.

"What is it Jackie?" Frankie asked.

"I think we may have found the CD player," Jackie explained.

"That's great!" Frankie grinned, but then her expression turned to a look of confusion. "What do you mean, you "may" have found it?"

"I think you'll need to come outside so I can show you," Jackie replied.

…

Jackie led Frankie right outside the front door. The path leading to the front door was a bit dusty because of a recent wind storm. That was except for one little spot. A spot that was in the shape of the perfect outline of Madam Foster's CD player.

"The CD player must've made this mark," Frankie figured, "But how the heck did it get down here, in the middle of the pathway?"

"That sounds like you have a mystery on your hands," Jackie said, putting on a pair of sunglasses that was too big to cover his one eye properly.

A thought then occurred to Frankie. "Hey Jackie," she turned to the small imaginary friend, "You were cleaning the upper stairwell, right?"

"Yup," Jackie nodded in reply.

"Did you see anyone go downstairs between noon and when you went to tell me this?" Frankie asked.

"No, why do you ask?" Jackie responded.

This confirmed Frankie's suspicions. "I think I can narrow down the list of suspects," she explained, "To 4 possible imaginary friends."

"Be sure to tell me who it was after dinner," Jackie asked, heading back inside.

…

Frankie went back to the higher floors of Foster's. "Hey Eduardo," she called to the big purple friend, "How's the laundry going?"

"It's going Bueno, senorita," Eduardo replied in Spanglish.

"Did you see Coco, Bloo, or Wilt with a CD player earlier?" Frankie asked.

"No, I did not," Eduardo asked, "Why? Is there some important CD player?"

"Madam Foster's one went missing," Frankie explained, "And I'm getting the feeling someone may have taken it."

"That's muy mal," Eduardo frowned, "I hope you can find it." Eduardo then looked at the sheets he had taken out of the laundry. "I'm sorry these are quite wrinkly, I may have put in too much detergent."

"It's ok Eduardo," Frankie assured, "This was your first time doing laundry in a while, no one is perfect."

"Thank you," Eduardo smiled toothily.

….

Frankie went to find Bloo next. Frankie knew Bloo well enough that the idea of "borrowing" someone else's objects probably wasn't out of the question for someone like him.

"Yeah Frankie?" Bloo asked in a hallway, reading a magazine.

"Tell me where it is," Frankie said coldly.

"Where what is?" Bloo asked.

"Madam Foster's CD player," Frankie replied, "Someone stole it, and based on my investigation the only possible suspects are you, Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco. And between the 4 of you, you are the most likely to do this."

"That's not fair," Bloo retorted, "I don't even like listening to music."

"You can make this so much easier on yourself Bloo if you just tell me where it is," Frankie said.

"I didn't take it," Bloo replied.

It was then Peaches, one of the younger imaginary friends, came up to Frankie. "Frankie, did you see the solar eclipse earlier today?" she asked.

"Solar eclipse?" Frankie asked, confused.

"Yeah," Peaches nodded, "I was in my room around noon, when all of a sudden, my window got covered in pitch blackness for a second."

A thought occurred in Frankie's head. "The window in your room faces the front of the house, right?" she asked Peaches.

"Yup," Peaches nodded.

"I have a theory," Frankie said.

…..

Frankie ran up to the roof of Foster's. "The last clue should be up here," she told herself.

She then saw her smoking gun. One of the pipes was bent, like something had tugged on it.

"Gotcha," Frankie smirked. The whole mystery now made sense. How the culprit managed to get down all the way to the bottom floor without being seen, why and how the CD player apparently was lying in the center of the walkway, and the solar eclipse Peaches noticed.

And now she knew exactly who the culprit was.

…..

Frankie went downstairs. She knew there was one person she had to talk to, and she also knew she wanted to handle this calmly.

"Hey Eduardo," Frankie smiled as she passed him in the hallway, "Could I maybe talk to you for a minute?"

"Si," Eduardo nodded, as he and Frankie walked into the room he, Wilt, Coco, and Bloo shared.

"Could you tell me why you took Madam Foster's CD player?" Frankie asked calmly.

Eduardo went wide eyed. "What makes you think it was me?" he asked.

"Ed, I did some looking around the house for clues, and I figured out what happened," Frankie replied. "It bothered me seeing the outline of the player lie in the center of the front walkway without any traces of footprints, and then it hit me, it could end up there it someone dropped it from above."

"But wouldn't tossing it off the roof or out a window smash it?" Eduardo pointed it.

"That was the trick," Frankie responded, "And you needed the laundry to pull it off. You went up to the roof and tied all the sheets you had access to together. That's why Wilt saw that there were barely any beds to make, you had to borrow extras."

"But what could I use all those bed sheets for?" Eduardo asked.

"To form a makeshift bungee," Frankie explained, "You tied one to a pipe on the roof, which ws why one was bent. You determined the right amount of sheets you would need, and you tied them together. Then, you tied yourself to it and did a bungee jump. When you were just about to be pulled back up, you set the CD player down on the ground. That's how it was possible for no footprints to be around where Jackie found it."

"What makes you think it was me, Frankie?" Eduardo asked, his expression suggested he knew he had been found out, but he wasn't upset with Frankie at all.

"When Peaches told me about what she thought was a solar eclipse was when I figured out what was going on," Frankie said, "You're the only one big enough to block out a window for a second, no offense meant."

"None taken," Eduardo replied.

"But why Eduardo?" Frankie asked the imaginary friend, "And how did it go missing from the walkway?"

"Because I found out the other day that it had broken," Eduardo explained, "I didn't want Madam Foster to be upset about that, so I already ordered the new one which looked just like the old one. It should be coming in the mail today. I had made a phone call so that the old one would be recycled."

"Kind of a crazy way to do it, but that was a nice gesture Eduardo," Frankie smiled, patting the imaginary friend's back, "But you don't have to be sneaky about these things. Just tell us and we'll let you help out. Got it?"

"Si," Eduardo nodded happily, "I'll go finish the laundry now."

….

Sure enough, the new CD player did arrive in the mail that day, just as Eduardo had ordered. Madam Foster was relieved to be able to listen to her tunes again, and Frankie was relieved that she would not end up hearing her grandmother get upset over a missing device.

"All's well that ends well," Frankie smiled, sitting on the porch of Foster's, when she noticed a van pull out right outside.

"The Cooper Gang?" the red haired teen said, surprised, "What are they doing here?"

"Hey Frankie," Murray smiled, "How are you doing?"

"Fine, but what brings you guys here?" Frankie responded.

"We need your help, honorable one," the Panda King said.

"I know that this place has a database with info on people from lots of the different worlds," Bentley explained, pulling up the laptop that was built into his wheelchair, "We'll be needing it to identify some potentially very dangerous criminals."

"Coming right up," Frankie said, going back inside and getting out a hard drive. "I downloaded the database onto this. Hope your computer's fast enough."

"It is, don't worry," Jing said. The younger panda hoped she'd be able to use her fireworks at one point during this mission.

…

Several worlds over, Sly and Carmelita had made it to the entrance of the Spirit World.

"I've heard some mixed things about this place," Sly said to Carmelita, "It sounds both exciting, relaxing, and dangerous. It's definitely a place we should vacation," he grinned.

"Sly, I feel you find too much fun in our job," Carmelita responded, rolling her eyes.

Outside the bathhouse, Yubaba, Haku, Lin, Wildcat, Quistis, and Komanji were waiting.

"So, you're finally here," Yubaba said, smoking a cigarette.

"Question," Sly spoke up, "If everyone here is a spirit, how can anyone be murdered?"

"Most of the spirits here who were not originally of this world have experienced death," Haku explained to his old ally, "But someone who gets killed here experiences something more terrifying: oblivion."


	6. Ceremonial Swiping

**The Toon Files Episode 123: Ceremonial Swiping.**

"Oblivion huh?" Sly asked nervously, not liking the sound of that term, "What does oblivion mean here?"

"It means a death even more permanent then what you mortals think of as death," Yubaba explained to the Interpol officers. "Once a spirit is sent into oblivion, they exist only in a void of pitch nothing. And there is no coming back from that realm."

"Thanks for the fair warning," Sly said, shivering a bit.

Ivan, Shifu's mongoose neighbor saw that the two mortals had arrived and walked over to them. "Are you gonna investigate the dark spirit sightings as well?"

"Dark spirit sightings?" Carmelita asked, confused.

"For the past couple of weeks several employees, customers, and residents of the bathhouse have claimed to see an unidentified dark spirit on the bathhouse grounds," Quistis explained, reading off her notepad, "It's exact intentions are unknown, but so far no spirits have reported being attacked by it."

Sly smirked, pulling out his cane. In the spirit world, he felt he didn't have to fully present himself as an Interpol constable, and if he combat was needed, he could fight with his family's signature weapon. "If it does get dangerous, just give me a holler," he said as they walked inside Yubaba's.

"I'll show you to the crime scene," Haku said.

….

"So Haku, why did you come back here?" Carmelita asked as they walked through the halls.

"To keep an eye on Yubaba, and to be with old friends again," the Kohaku river spirit replied, "And ever since the Toon Detective Complex closed down, I knew my services would best be needed here."

"I see," Carmelita nodded.

"Yoko….it's not fair," Hailey cried, still standing near the room her friend had mysteriously roasted to death in.

"So, the victim burned to death," Sly said, beginning to examine the body. Yoko's body had been toasted all over.

"And this is where the confusion sets in," Rarity said. The fashionable pony had worked with the couple 10 years ago before she was murdered by the robot double Harrison had created of Twilight. "From what was reported from the spirits who were able to smell the fire, it stands to reason that the fire that killed her never got further then the room you are investigating right now."

"What's odd about that?" Sly asked.

"Look around you, ringtail," Carmelita pointed out, "If a room was set on fire, how can everything else besides the victim's body not be burnt?"

"Huh?" Sly said, surprised, but then he looked around. Indeed, everything else in the room, from the bed, to the nightstand, to the shelves, were perfectly devoid of fire damage. "That is bizarre," he nodded.

"I've brought in known fire spirits to see if they can answer any questions," Yubaba told the officers she had called for.

….

"It's so horrible what happened to that girl," Nica said to Domo as Carmelita and Sly were being brought up to what Yubaba had declared as the interrogation room.

"Let us know if there is anything we can do to help you," Domo said to the fox and raccoon.

"Did you know the victim?" Carmelita asked.

"Not personally, but we saw here around the bathhouse a lot," Nica said. "And we always want to help."

"Here are the fire spirits," Haku said.

"Let's take individual ones so we can cover more ground," Sly suggested to his wife.

"Got it," Carmelita nodded.

As Sly went to talk to Calcifer the fire spirit, Carmelita bumped into someone she wasn't expecting to see. "Blaze!" she smiled, seeing a cat with the power of pyrokinetics, "What are you doing here? You're not a spirit, and hopefully you're not dead, right?"

"Of course not," Blaze assured, "But I got called here by Yubaba right after my first round in the Olympics."

"I heard about that," Carmelita smiled, "How is that going?"

"Oh, it's shaping up to be something great," Blaze grinned competitively, "But let me tell you, the pre-games opening ceremony are a story of their own."

"Let's hear it," Carmelita encouraged.

….

**Beijing, China, 2008.**

Competition is what can bring many people together. For the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom and the residents of Sonic's world, the Olympics had become a time now for the two worlds to compete against each other in a series of challenging athletic events.

This year, both worlds teamed up and pooled their budget to put on a spectacular opening ceremony. While Mario and Sonic themselves would be putting on an impress display of skill in the Olympic Arena itself, the others had set up a fancy parade through a street in Beijing that had been redecorated to look like some of the most notable locations from both worlds.

"We really went all out this year," Blaze smirked to Princess Peach.

"You said it," Peach nodded, "I hope everyone watching at home likes it."

"Why of course everyone will!" a deep voice chuckled. It was Dr. Eggman, Sonic's nemesis. "With the tech I was able to provide, no one will doubt my…I mean our greatness!"

"We're keeping our eyes on you, Eggman," Blaze reminded.

"Oh, that won't be necessary, you know I'm on my best behavior," Eggman smirked in a way neither Blaze or Peach could trust.

"Let the parade begin!" called Silver the telekinetic hedgehog.

…..

The opening ceremony was certainly a site to behold. The parade filled with balloons representing both worlds began to move down the main street toward the Olympic stadium.

"This is epic," Blaze smirked, watching the floats go by.

All of a sudden, a smoke mist began to emit in the center of the parade route!

"What's going on?" coughed Peach, covering her eyes.

It took a few moments for every to see clearly again, but when the smoke cleared, everything seemed fine.

However, there was one exception to that.

"Oh no!" Peach yelled, looking towards a building on the side of the street.

"What's going on Peach?" Blaze asked, running over to the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.

"The Mushroom Diamond!" Peach exclaimed, pointing to a display in a shop, "The one my father donated for this ceremony! It's missing!"

"What?" Blaze asked, running over to the display. The glass in front of it had been shattered. There was a sign reading "Mushroom Diamond, treasure of the royal family of the Mushroom Kingdom for over 11 generations."

And, just above that sign was a big, fancy pillow that had an indent from a heavy object that should have been sitting on top of it. But, just as Peach had feared, the priceless Mushroom Diamond was nowhere to be seen.

…

Despite the smoke screen, Blaze and Peach decided that it was best for the parade to continue.

"And I'll need a bath too," Peach grumbled, wiping dirt off her dress, "I hate getting dirty."

"Peach, your gloves have holes in them," Blaze noticed, seeing tiny perforations around the fingertips.

"Double drat," Peach frowned, "Luckily I have a lot of extra pairs."

"But who could've done this?" Blaze asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" spoke up a voice. It belonged to Toad. "It has to be that Dr. Eggman guy, he's always messing with you and your friends in your world, he'd probably want to mess with us too."

"Did you see where he was in the parade?" Blaze asked Toad.

"I was marching at the back of the parade, so I'm not sure," Toad admitted.

"Look up there!" Peach pointed.

Blaze looked up to see Dr. Eggman riding in one of his vehicles just above all of the parade's floats.

"Leave this to me guys," Blaze said, "And give me some room."

"What for?" Peach asked, puzzled.

"For me to take flight," Blaze grinned, beginning to spin rapidly and forming some of her fire.

"Whoa!" Toad exclaimed, "It's like she has a fire flower!"

"This is more epic," Blaze chuckled, using her fire to launch her into the air as a form of flight.

"Amazing," Peach awed at her friend.

…..

Blaze was able to use her pyrokinetics to get her very high into the air. She got a good look at Eggman's vehicle.

"Oh, you aren't getting far doctor," Blaze smirked, using a burst of flame to propel her forward.

"What the blazes?!" Dr. Eggman exclaimed when he saw Blaze zipping towards him.

"Really good choice of words," Blaze complimented with a smug smirk as she landed in front of Eggman.

"What are you doing up here, Blaze?" Dr. Eggman demanded to know.

"Oh don't worry about that, this can all get resolved without me having to roast your butt if you just tell me where it is."

"Where what is?" Dr. Eggman asked, not getting what she was talking about.

"Don't play dumb doctor, you do proclaim yourself as a genius," Blaze replied, "I'm talking about the Mushroom Diamond. It's gone missing, and you are our prime suspect."

Eggman paused for several seconds, and then he began to laugh. "You really think I would take such a pointless object as a mere diamond? My feline friend, my goals involve far more than mere monetary gain. I have no use for a diamond like that."

"For real?" Blaze asked, feeling like Dr. Eggman was not lying to her.

"Indeed," Eggman nodded, "Besides, if I did steal something like that, certainly someone like me would steal it in a much more theatrical fashion."

"You have a point there," Blaze admitted reluctantly.

"Now just get back down there so the Olympics can begin, I'm looking forward to claiming victory. Now, a gold medal is something I crave."

"I'm keeping my eye on you," Blaze told Dr. Eggman as she jumped back down to the surface level.

…

Blaze ran to the front of the parade route to find Silver.

"Where were you Blaze? I've been trying to spot you in the crowd this whole time." The silver hedgehog commented.

"Someone stole a treasure of the Mushroom Kingdom," Blaze said to her best friend, "And it doesn't look like Dr. Eggman did it."

"If that's true," Silver said, "Then anyone in this crowd of 100s could be the thief," he sighed.

"Did you see anything weird when the smoke screen hit?" Blaze asked Silver.

"No," Silver nodded in response, "All the floats managed to stay on track."

"So the culprit probably had everything timed," Blaze figured. "They waited until their smoke device trigger, then they smashed the glass in front of the display."

"They probably could not have gotten far though," Silver commented, using his powers to impress the crowd by lifting crates, "The parade route is completely sealed off to non-paying spectators, and there's no place around that someone could just climb a fence."

"Good point Silver," Blaze smiled, "Then we know the Mushroom Diamond can't be too far away."

"Just be sure to be in the stadium in 20 minutes," Silver pointed out, "The games start around then."

"Gotcha," Blaze nodded.

…..

Though she knew the thief probably did not manage to escape, something still bothered Blaze. If the diamond was stolen during the smoke screen, how could the thief had known where the display was? It was too hard to see anything through that. And she was in fairly close proximity to the store where the display was, and she didn't recall hearing any rapid footsteps.

"I spilt my ice cream," a young fox cried to his parents.

"Don't worry, we'll buy you a new one, son," the mother assured.

Blaze looked down, the child had spilt the ice cream right in front of the store where the diamond was taken. She saw the ice cream spilled in a straight pattern along the ground. Except for one spot. There was a narrow line of clear ground in the middle of the spilled ice cream.

"When did you drop your ice cream, kid?" Blaze asked, beginning to get an idea of what happened.

"It was when everything got all smoky," the young fox told the feline with fire powers.

"I see," Blaze nodded, the picture starting to become clear to her. But she needed proof. She hoped it was still there.

Blaze went over and began picking up the shards of glass in front of the smashed display. After closely examining several pieces, she eventually found 1 where it looked like it had been cut neatly by a sharp object.

"I've got it," Blaze said to herself, "I know who swiped the Mushroom Diamond!"

….

Blaze ran back over to Peach and Toad. "You look happy Blaze," Peach commented upon seeing her friend, "Do you have good news?"

"I do Peach," Blaze replied, holding her hand out. In it was the Mushroom Diamond. Peach went wide eyed, not expecting to see it.

"You found it? That's great!"

"Why are you surprised?" Blaze smirked to the princess, "Wait, let me take a guess. I may not be psychic like Silver, but I think the reason you're surprised is because you're the one who made the diamond disappear!"

Toad looked shocked, "Is that true, Princess Peach?" he asked the Mushroom Kingdom royalty.

"Of course it can't be true," Peach replied, "How would I have been able to take the diamond?"

"By making use of a glass cutter and some fishing wire," Blaze responded, having figured out Peach's trick.

"How would those help her?" Toad asked.

"You hid the glass cutter inside your gloves for quick access," Blaze explained, "That's why there were holes in them. You cut a small hole in the display just big enough for the diamond to fit out of."

"And where does this fishing wire come in?" Peach asked.

"You tied it earlier to the diamond, with the other part connecting to one of the floats in the parade. I was able to figure this out because of spilled ice cream. There was a narrow streak of clear land, from where the fishing wire was pulling the diamond into the air."

"But how can you be sure it was me?" Peach asked.

"The gloves are the giveaway," Blaze said, "Since you've been with Toad this whole time, you haven't had the time to hide the glass cutter. I found shards of the shattered glass that had an even cut to them that would be impossible to produce from a random smashing."

Peach sighed, but then she smiled. "You're pretty good Blaze," she said, holding the diamond her in hand.

"But why would you take it Princess?" Toad asked, "It's already the property of the Mushroom Kingdom!"

"It was put on display without my permission," Peach informed Toad, "Some of the guards got hasty and put it up for the display thinking it would look good. You can understand that I don't want such a priceless treasure to possibly get dirty or taken by a stranger. The safest place an item can be is on your person, am I right?"

"Point taken princess," Toad nodded.

"Let's get to the games now," Blaze smirked to her friends, "I'll be leaving you two in ashes though!" she laughed.

"Oh really?" Peach grinned, doing some stretches, "I think I always managed to outrun you in training!"

"That was then, and this is now!" Blaze laughed.

…..

"And that all happened before the Olympics began," Blaze informed Carmelita.

"Interesting," the fox inspector nodded, and then she remembered the reason Blaze, Calcifer, and many others were called to Yubaba's. "Do you or any of the fire spirits have the power to keep your flames confined to small areas?"

"What do you mean?" Blaze asked Carmelita.

"We found a victim dead in a room downstairs, her body was completely burnt, yet nothing else in the room showed any signs of fire damage."

Blaze thought for a minute. "Not even right below the body?"

"That was in relatively good condition too," Carmelita informed.

"I'm not sure then," Blaze replied, shrugging.

Sly came out of the interrogation room. "Calcifer wasn't able to give me any good answers," he said. Then he noticed Carmelita looked very concerned. "What's the matter?" the thief turned constable asked his wife.

"With such a weird murder method," Carmelita began, "To me, this feels less like an isolated incident and more like the start of a streak. I get the darkest feeling….that this is not over yet."


	7. Pop Dies The Weasel

**The Toon Files Episode 124: Pop Dies The Weasel.**

Darrell Chimer walked over to Haku as he was tending to some of the rooms of the richer spirits.

"Is the train to Swamp Bottom still scheduled for today?" the goat asked the river spirit.

"In spite of what happened today, Yubaba says the train is still scheduled to depart on time," Haku replied.

"Aw good, I was looking forward to the travel," the goat spirit chuckled smugly to himself.

"Ugh, that guy gives me bad vibes," Carmelita told Sly.

"I can put him on the suspect list if you want," Sly offered politely.

"You do that," Carmelita nodded to Sly.

….

In Yubaba's office, now that the Interpol officers were investigating the case, she went back to count the profits of the day.

"Three hundred thousand," she grinned to herself. All of a sudden, her phone rang.

"Hello?" the witch asked to the person on the other end of the line. It belonged to a person who was at another part of the vast spirit world.

"Hello Yubaba," said Koenma, he was the ruler of the spirit realm now that his father had been forced out of the title because of some in-house corruption.

"What do you want Koenma?" Yubaba asked her fellow high ranking spirit.

"I heard about what happened at the bathhouse," Koenma explained, "I could help with the investigation if need be, though I would need anyone you've hired to do the investigation to come to my palace."

"I'll consider that," Yubaba replied, disinterested.

"You know I have files on everyone from all the mortal worlds who have died," Koenma explained, "I can get you the file if need be."

"Look, I'll have my people talk to yours," Yubaba yawned, "I have some profits to count."

"You do that," Koenma replied, annoyed by the witch's focus on the profits of her business.

…

Back in the Cooper Gang's van, they were using the databases to uncover the identity of the first Crimson Sphere gang member they could.

"To bring some people who have evaded justice for so long, it will be the best," Sylvia smiled.

"After we steal all their stuff first," Carmen laughed to her sister.

"Now, now, play nice you two," Jing advised the children.

"Indeed," the Panda King nodded, "Crime usually doesn't have a happy ending…" While Jing's father had atoned from his time in the Fiendish Five, he still felt bad thinking about the time he had been a criminal.

"So, hell of a man in a shell," Dimitri said in his specialized lingo to Bentley, "You got any leads?"

"I just may be picking up on one right now, in fact," Bentley smirked, using his hacking and the info provided.

Jing, using her laptop's connection, began looking at articles related to crimes attributed to the Crimson Spheres. "Apparently these guys were so good at avoiding detection, the papers kept the names of their victims secret so that they couldn't track down relatives," the 28 year old Panda said, reading some over.

"Got our first link," Bentley smirked, "Murray, it's time we head to the Big Apple!"

"The Murray loves apples!" the hippo grinned, putting the pedal to the metal.

….

**New York City, New York, 2004.**

Life can be hard for some of us, but it's important to keep a positive attitude. This was a lesson especially true for the residents of Avenue Q. The puppet and human residents of this relatively small Manhattan block all did their best with their jobs.

Residents included Princeton, a recent college graduate, Kate, a monster looking to start a school for monsters, Nicky, the fun loving laidback guy, Rod, his roommate who was gay, Ricky, Rod's boyfriend who looked exactly like Nicky, Lucy, who worked around down, Trekkie monster, who was a fan of rather lewd material on the Internet, and the Bad Idea Bears, two bears who enjoyed giving Princeton bad advice.

Today, after several months of going out together, Princeton and Kate had finally gotten engaged, and everyone was celebrating at their apartment.

"All right! Party!" Nicky exclaimed, turning up the music.

"Drink lots of alcohol and make a fool of yourself," the Bad Idea bears tried to advise Princeton.

"I don't think I should tonight," Princeton said, able to resist them now.

"I still got some banking to do," Rod said. Of all the residents of Avenue Q, he was probably the one with the most financially secure career.

"I don't even like drinking wine," Lucy said.

"I'll be booting up the PS2," Ricky told the party guests.

"Oh Princeton, this is so wonderful," Kate smiled, "We'll be married soon, and this party is going great."

"By this place's standards, yeah," Princeton nodded.

"You guys wanna see some photos I took of those 2?" Trekkie monster asked with a grin that suggested sinister intentions.

"You wouldn't dare," Kate said.

"I would," Trekkie laughed, leaving the apartment.

"Let's just ignore him," Nicky said.

…..

45 minutes had passed. Several people had walked through the apartment, doing their own things. While the party was a social event, there was not a lot of direct socializing.

Princeton had Nicky go out and fill his car up with gas for him, since it was running low just as he got back to the apartment for the party.

"Um, guys," Ricky said, concerned, watching the TV, "You may want to see this."

"What's up?" Lucy asked.

"That," Ricky pointed grimly to the news. The local newscaster was giving off a breaking news report. "The victim, Trekkie Monster, was found inside his car on the Brooklyn Bride, stabbed in the chest. The suspect is assumed to have killed him inside the vehicle and fled the scene."

"Trekkie's dead?!" Princeton gasped, everyone gathering around the tv to watch the news.

"How could this be?" Kate asked, horrified.

"I hope the police are able to find the killer," Rod said, adjusting his glasses, which had their lens get a little messed up.

"Who could have done this?" Lucy asked, pulling a feather that had gotten stuck in her hair.

"We were probably the last ones who saw him alive," Princeton realized, "The police will probably want to ask us questions."

"The phone lines are down," Rod said, going over to the phone, "And my cell's not getting any reception."

"We forgot to pay the phone bills, didn't we?" Princeton realized.

"Yeah…" Kate nodded, making the same realization.

"I need a minute to myself," the husband to be said, walking over to the apartment's restroom.

…..

Princeton needed to take a minute to catch his thoughts. Not only was he upset that one of his fellow apartment owners was dead, and there was a bad theory forming in his mind. A suspicion.

"Princeton, is there anything I can do to help?" Kate asked concerned, walking into the room.

"There's a really bad feeling I got about this, Kate," Princeton explained.

"What? Do you think the killer will strike again?" Kate gulped.

"No, I get the feeling that the killer is…..someone who is at this party!" Princeton explained.

Kate gasped, "Are you kidding me?" she asked.

"Cmon, it kind of makes sense," Princeton explained, "He liked to blackmail a lot of us, plus we were all the last ones to have seen Trekkie alive."

"But Princeton, it doesn't make sense," Kate replied, "The news report said that he was found on the Brooklyn Bridge, right?"

"Yeah, what about that?" Princeton asked his fiancé.

"Well, even though it's pretty much a straight line after a few turns right outside the apartment, given the speed limit, if the killer drove to the bridge, got off, and ran back, it would take at least 30 minutes by foot."

Princeton thought back to the events of the party. From what he could recall, while he did see Ricky, Rod, and Lucy all step out for a while, no one was gone for more than 20 minutes.

"We'll have to keep investigating though," Princeton said, "If we try going to the police right now, if the killer is one of our friends, they'll probably hide any evidence if we give them time to think about it."

"You have a point there," Kate nodded, "But where are you going to look? Trekkie's body was found on the bridge."

"We'll keep everyone here for a while," Princeton planned, "Then I'll make up a reason to leave, and drive over and look for clues."

"Gotcha," Kate nodded.

…

In the living room, the other puppet residents of Avenue Q were still shocked about what had happened.

"What should we do with his stuff?" Nicky asked.

"Knowing Trekkie, he'd probably want to be buried with his computer," Rod replied.

Kate and Princeton stepped back into the main room.

"We decided we should all stay together at this time," Kate informed their guests, "From what I learned in my college classes, that can significantly help with the grieving process."

"Thanks Kate," Lucy nodded.

As Kate was talking to the others, Princeton began looking around the apartment for clues. "There has to be something here out of place," he said to himself.

Princeton then noticed that, by the back door of the apartment, there was a trail of water on the floor.

"That's weird," he said to himself, "It stopped raining over half a day ago." The college graduate figured this had to be a clue, so he kept it in mind.

"Hey Nicky, where did you set my car keys?" Princeton called.

"On the kitchen table," Nicky replied.

"Thanks," Princeton nodded, picking them up.

"Where are you going Princeton?" Ricky asked.

"To get some snacks….snacks help with grieving, right?" Princeton lied on the spot, "We could all use some snacks…."

"I'll take a Pepsi, pick up a 2 liter," Nicky requested.

…

Princeton drove up to the Brooklynn Bridge and went over to Trekkie's car, where officers were still examining the scene.

"Hey officers," Princeton explained, "I knew the victim, he lived in the same apartment as me, can I be permitted to see the body?"

"Only for a second sir," the officer replied, "And you can't touch anything, got that?"

"Yes mam," Princeton nodded.

Leaning into Trekkie's car, Princeton tried to notice clues. He saw that the lever in the car had been turned to "Neutral."

"Better make note of that," Princeton said to himself, pulling out a notepad and beginning to jot down his observations.

"You'll have to be leaving soon sir, we'll have to take this car down to the station," the cop explained.

Princeton also noticed a button labeled "CC" that looked like it had been pressed, and he wondered why the culprit left the passenger door open wide when they escaped the car. If they wanted to make a subtle getaway, they shouldn't have tried that.

"Get going," the cop demanded.

"Yes mam," Princeton said again, getting back to his car.

…

Wanting to keep the ruse up so that everyone wouldn't get suspicious that he was investigating the crime, Princeton picked up snacks at a nearby 7/11 and returned to his apartment.

"All right, Pepsi," Nicky grinned. Nicky had popped in a game on the PS2 since Princeton had left. He felt video games would help them get over the grief.

"That's the new Socom?" Princeton noticed, "When did you get that?"

"Tonight, with the money you loaned me," Nicky explained.

"Nicky, that money was for filling up my gas tank," Princeton frowned.

"That's the thing," Nicky replied, "When I drove out away from Avenue Q it said your car's tank was completely full, so, since gas wasn't needed I got myself a little something nice."

It was then an idea popped into Princeton's head. He was beginning to figure out some of the pieces of the puzzle, but he couldn't fully fit them all together. He needed more evidence.

He looked around his apartment. "It should still be here," Princeton said, informing Kate on his discoveries while he was out.

"I'll help you look," Kate nodded.

After a few minutes of searching, Kate found what they were looking for. "The mattress in the guest bedroom is soaking wet," she informed.

"And is there a whole in it?" Princeton asked.

"There is," Kate nodded. She turned to Princeton.

"We have the killer," the couple said in unison.

….

Princeton and Kate walked back into the room where Nicky, Rod, Ricky, Lucy, and the Bad Idea Bears were.

"We have some big news," Kate revealed.

"Aw, you're breaking up already?" Nicki frowned, "Well, you're both strong, you'll survive."

"It's not that Nicky," Princeton replied, "We've figured out who murdered Trekkie monster!"

Everyone gasped.

"Who was it?" Rod asked.

Princeton and Kate pointed dramatically. "You killed him…..Lucy!"

Everyone turned towards Lucy and gasped. "That can't be," Ricky said, surprised.

"That's insane," Lucy responded, "Murder is not a moral thing to do, and besides, Trekkie was found dead on the Brooklyn Bridge, how could I have gotten the car onto there and make it back so fast?"

"By using the cruise control of the car," Princeton explained, "You set it so the car would be going at the necessary speed limit, and, once it was facing the bridge, you could let it drive."

"But how could she be sure the car stopped on the bridge?" Nicky asked.

"She siphoned his gas," Kate explained, "You knew the right estimate of gas that would be required to get the car to run out on the Brooklyn Bridge. To make sure the gas didn't seem out of place, you put it in Princeton's car. Too bad you didn't count on Princeton wanting Nicky to go to the gas station, Lucy."

"But by that logic, anyone could have pulled that trick off," Lucy argued in her defense, "What makes you so sure that the killer had to have been me?"

"The secret to that lies in the guest bedroom mattress," Princeton continued, "I thought it was odd that there was a soaking trail around the back door of the apartment when the rain ended a while ago. Then I remembered, though you were able to have the car cruise to the bridge, you had to drive it for a few turns to get it on the right road. You had to jump out of a moving car, and you used the mattress so you'd have a soft landing. That's also why the door was wide open, as I saw on the bridge."

"Again, how does that peg me as the killer?" Lucy demanded to know.

"It was the feather in your hair we saw earlier," Kate revealed, making Lucy gasp, "The mattress has a hole in it, and the feathers from inside leaked."

Lucy fell back into her seat, her whole grand master plan had fallen apart before her eyes.

"Why'd you kill him Lucy?" Rod asked.

"Didn't you guys all see?" Lucy said, explaining her motive, "He was trying to mess with all of us by releasing rather risqué photos onto the internet. I just couldn't let him ruin all of our lives like that."

The others only sat and stood in silence, saddened that the day went the way that it did.

….

After Lucy had been arrested, the others stayed behind to pick up the mess that had been made at the party.

"It sucks that this day went down like this," Kate sighed.

"Damn straight," Nicky nodded.

It was then a knock was heard on the door. "I'll get it," Princeton said, going over and opening the door.

It was Bentley, Murray, the Panda King, Jing, and Dimitri.

"Who are you people?" Princeton asked the Cooper Gang.

"Who were are is not important," Bentley responded, pointing towards the Bad Idea Bears.

"What about us?" the bears asked, nervously.

"I'm talking about your pasts," the turtle in a wheelchair replied, "Specifically, how you were both members of the Crimson Sphere Gang!"

"That what gang?" Rod asked, confused.

"Interpol would be really happy to meet you both, we can tell you that," Bentley grinned.

Both of the bears looked nervous when Murray noticed something through the window.

"Get down everyone!" the hippo suddenly shouted as, all of a sudden, two shots were fired into the apartment.

Everyone took cover, and when it was clear the shooter had stopped, Bentley looked up.

The Bad Idea Bears were dead, both shot through the heart.


	8. Unlocking the Truth

**The Toon Files Episode 125: Unlocking the Truth.**

"What the hell was that?!" Princeton yelled, keeping his back to the apartment wall.

"There's a sniper," the Panda King explained, managing to get a look out the window.

"Can you make out who it is father?" Jing asked, helping others to stay out of the possible line of fire.

"No, they're wearing a cloak," the big panda replied, "He's getting away!"

"Stay here and call the police," Murray told the residents of Avenue Q.

"Are you ok?" Rod asked his boyfriend.

"I'm fine," Ricky responded. "Nicky, how about you?"

"Freaked the hell out, but otherwise OK," Nicky panted.

"Sorry about this, it's not your fault," Jing said as the Cooper Gang rushed back to their van.

"What is going on with this day?!" Kate yelled once the coast was clear.

"The bad guy is getting away," Carmen and Sylvia told Murray, who put the pedal to the metal once all the team was in the van.

…..

Back in the Spirit World, the special train to the Swamp Bottom Springs was boarding. Naturally, since there was a cost to pay, only the wealthier spirits could afford to board it.

"Yoko always said she wanted to go on this," Hailey sighed, the cheetah had managed to look inside it as the boarding process to a few hours.

"Anyone you know boarding this?" Carmelita asked Domo and Nica.

"There's Darrell Chimer and Ivan Stanton," Nica recalled, going over the comments some of the other rich spirits had made from her memory. "They like to show off and go to the fancy vacation spots."

"Why aren't you going?" the Interpol inspector questioned the couple.

"We were never that type," Domo explained, "Though we had much success and wealth back when we were living, we always did our best to help the less fortunate around us."

"Showing off was never out thing," Nica nodded, kissing her husband.

"I see," Carmelita nodded.

…..

Sly had gone to the bathtubs to talk to Miguel. He had found out that this fox spirit had been seen talking with Yoko a short amount of time before she was found dead, and he was hoping he'd be able to provide a clue.

Miguel was a kind spirit, he was not quite rich, but he had found a career in the realm of the spirits. He was currently hanging with Genta, the sumo tiger spirit in one of the tubs.

"I talked with Yoko and her friend about their protests," he told Sly, putting in more bath tokens so they could get more water, "I absolutely detest violence, so I talked with Yoko and her friend Hailey about other ways they could try to solve the issue they have a major problem with."

"Did you see where Yoko went after that?" Sly asked.

"Alas, I did not," Miguel replied, as Rarity and one of Wildcat's co-chefs arrived to deliver light snacks to the tub.

"I was hoping I'd be able to get a clue," Sly sighed.

"Don't worry young man, I can tell you're a smart fellow who's made plenty of smart choices," Miguel assured.

"We here at Yubaba's really appreciate your services, Mr. Cooper," the pony told Sly.

"You can just call me Sly, we've worked together before," Sly replied.

All of a sudden, bubbles were seen forming in the tub.

"What's that?" Genta asked, taking a sip of tropical drink.

Out of nowhere any of the people in the room could figure out, Skipper the penguin leaped out of the tub and landed besides Sly and Rarity.

"Skipper, where the hell did you come from?" Sly asked.

"I just came from the Central Park Zoo," the secret agent penguin replied, "Kowalski just got done solving a mystery, and I headed here cause my supreme strategist skills were needed elsewhere."

"What kind of mystery?" Sly asked.

"Well…." Skipper began to recall.

….

**Central Park Zoo, New York City, New York, 2009.**

Skipper and his fellow penguins were quite the special forces team. The 4 penguins went on frequent missions when they were not aiding Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman, and often they went trekking around the world (or between worlds, nowadays).

Though they resided in the Central Park Zoo most of the time, it was not always a pleasant experience for them. Especially since King Julian the lemur came to live in the zoo as well, along with his cohorts Maurice and Mort.

"Seems Julian keeps talking about the phantom again," Marlene the otter told Skipper and his crew. Marlene was a recent addition to the zoo, and could match wits with Skipper.

"There's no such things as specters," Skipper nodded in reply.

"But what if there is?" Private asked. Private was the most timid and superstitious of the four.

"It's just not empirically possible," Kowalski assured his friend.

"Kowalski's right, you have nothing to worry about Private," Skipper nodded.

"Ok," Private said in response.

….

Nightfall eventually hit the Central Park Zoo. Skipper has no assignments for him and his friends, so they were just going to settle down for the night, and relax.

Rico, the penguin who didn't talk and had what pretty much counted as a Swiss army stomach, was listening to a radio.

Skipper noticed Private staring out into the center of the zoo, looking freaked out.

"What's freaking you out?" Skipper asked his cohort.

"T…th…that!" Private pointed his flipper quickly.

Skipper turned to see a mysterious cloaked figure standing in the central part of the zoo. "Animals of the zoo!" the figure called in a creepy voice, "Fear not, I will release you all from your captivity!"

"Oh no you don't!" Skipper called, running over and trying to tackle the figure, but the mysterious figure managed to jump out of the way.

"Boys, help me with this!" he shouted to Kowalski, Private, and Rico.

"Let's go!" Kowalski said, the three sliding on their stomachs to move faster.

The cloaked figure, whose identity they could not make out, was moving too quickly for any of them to grab him.

"Drat!" Skipper yelled as every move they made proved to be futile.

"You boys will not be able to stop me," the figure chuckled ominously, as he or she managed to always be one step ahead of the penguins.

"Delta pinzer attack!" Skipper called for, as he and the others tried to surround the figure and take them down, but even then the figure managed to leap out of the way and into some deep bushes.

"We're gonna lose him!" Private gasped.

"We can't give up so easily boys!" Skipper told the other penguins, chasing after the figure. "Rico, Private, stay here in case he tries to double back!"

"Gotcha!" Private nodded.

….

Skipper and Kowalski ran through the bushes, trying to get a visual on the mysterious figure.

"Do you see him Kowalski?" Skipper called.

"No I can't, and you don't have to shout when I'm right near you," Kowalski responded, rubbing his flipper through his ear.

"Wait," Skipper said, hearing a sound, "Do you hear that?"

Kowalski stopped and listened. What the penguins heard was the sound of locks clicking and metal doors opening.

"We have to get back to the center of the zoo!" Skipper called, and he and Kowalski ran back, bumping into some branches along the way.

They saw Rico and Private looking in awe as several animals managed to get their way out of their enclosures.

"Rico! Private! What on blazes happened here?!" Skipper shouted.

"It was a phantom," Private shivered, "As we were standing here, all of the locks on the cages began to turn by themselves. And, just like that, the doors were open!"

"They turned by themselves? That's impossible!" Kowalski exclaimed.

The 4 penguins could hear the laughter of the mysterious figure in the distance, unable to tell what direction it was coming from.

"Double drat," Skipper frowned.

….

As the animals luckily did not run like crazy and were just stretching their legs and paws for now, and the penguins had an idea of who to talk to.

"All right lemur! Come on out!" Skipper called, racing over to King Julian's tree.

"Ah, my black and white friends, how are you doing?" the annoying pestering and over-energetic lemur asked, jumping out from a tree and landing behind them.

"We know you were the phantom," Private said.

"Phantom?!" Julian shivered, climbing back up the tree nervously, "I told you it was real!"

"No, it had to be you," Kowalski said, "We know you like to troll us, and what better way to do so then whip up a scheme to open all the cages at once."

"I would never do something like that, all my subjects belong in cages!" Julian laughed in an egomaniacal tone.

"Where were you for the past 30 minutes?" Kowalski questioned, having Rico cough up a notepad and a pen for him to write things down on.

"He was hanging up here in the tree!" Mort suddenly exclaimed. Mort was Julian's hyper energetic, and most likely psychotic, subject, who never seemed to take an issue with him.

"Oh, uh, hi Mort," Kowalski said, taken by surprise by the smaller lemur, "Is that the truth?"

"It very much is," Mort nodded in an unsettling tone, "King Julian is a great king who would not need to hide his identity, he has no secrets to hide!"

As unstable as Mort was known for being, Kowalski, Skipper, Rico, and Private felt like he was not lying on this one. Plus, they feared for their safety knowing what Mort could be capable of.

"We'll just be on our way," Skipper said.

"Yes, you merely penguins do that!" Julian laughed crazily.

"Let's get going," Kowalski whispered nervously.

…..

The penguins decided to look around the zoo to find more clues. "If it wasn't Julian, maybe the phantom's still in the area," Private suggested.

"That's a good idea Private," Skipper said, "For the record, if anyone asks, I'll claim it was my idea."

"I'm not surprised…" Private replied.

Walking around, the penguins eventually found Maurice, another one of the lemurs, walking around by some of the sewer pipes of the Central Park Zoo.

"All right Maurice, tell us where you hid the costume," Skipper demanded to know.

"What costume?" Maurice asked, surprised by the penguins' sudden appearance.

"Julian probably had you in on his whole phantom scheme," Skipper figured, "So he had you dress up as the phantom so he could appear as right to every animal in the zoo!"

"Look, this is King Julian we are talking about here," Maurice replied, "Do you really think me, someone who likes the ability to stay alive, follow along with any of his schemes?"

"You have a point, touché," Skipper conceded, "Did anyone see you around these parts?"

"Mason and Phil the monkeys did," Maurice explained.

"We'll keep in touch," Skipper replied, "Let's get going boys, this mystery is not yet over."

….

There was still one detail that none of the penguins were able to figure out: How did the mysterious figure manage to unlock all the cage doors simultaneously?

"Maybe it really was magic," Private shivered, "Maybe what we're dealing with is a real phantom after all!"

"Nonsense Private," Skipper laughed, "There is no such thing as magic in this world. There is such a thing as magic in other worlds, but not this one, you see."

"But that still doesn't give us a rational explanation for what happened tonight," Kowalski pointed out.

"You have a point there," Skipper nodded to his friend. "There has to be some kind of clue."

It was only a matter of time before the penguins were able to find one.

"What's that?" Private pointed, seeing a bunch of small objects lying on the ground. The penguins went to investigate.

"These are the zookeepers' keys," Skipper commented.

"But we didn't see any keys when the doors were unlocked," Private replied.

Skipper then noticed that the way the keys were lying on the ground, it was like they were forming a line. A line that led all the way over to a metal grate near the center of the zoo.

"Hmm…." Kowalski said, running over to the grate and looking down. The penguin's beak began to form a big grin.

"What is it Kowalski? Give me a mission report," Skipper requested.

"After putting all the facts together, adding 2 and 2, I do believe I know the true identity of the phantom!" Kowalski smiled.

…..

The penguins went around the Central Park Zoo doing odd jobs. Skipper and Rico went to make sure the animals would get back in their enclosures, while Kowalski and Private went to go confront the culprit.

"What are you two doing back so soon?" Maurice asked the duo approaching him.

"You can surrender now Maurice," Kowalski advised, "We've figured out it was you who was the phantom, and this time we're sure of it!"

"That's crazy!" Maurice laughed.

"And I know you have a fair standard to compare crazy to, but let me elaborate," Kowalski began. "We know how the phantom managed to unlock all the doors of the cages at once. All it required was a giant magnet!"

"A giant magnet?!" Maurice replied, beginning to sweat.

"We found it down in the sewer," Private explained, "We noticed a trail of keys that was being dragged by the magnet."

"That's how all the locks of the cages were being turned," Kowalski continued, "The metal locks were being pulled towards the magnet!"

"But where's your proof I did any of this?" Maurice asked, "Cause you haven't shown me any. Not a lick!"

"Your own alibi is the proof," Kowalski smirked, "The magnet needed to be activated manually, and you said witnesses saw you around the sewer entrances. Julian had an alibi of being in a tree, so that just leaves you, I'm afraid."

"Oh dang," Maurice sighed, having been found out.

"But why would you do this Maurice?" Private asked, "I thought you hated getting involved in Julian's schemes."

"I don't," Maurice replied, "I did all this to scare him specifically, I didn't intend to involve you guys at all! I was hoping that by showing up as his phantom and making a show, he'd be too terrified to order me around for a while!"

"You have a real good point there," Kowalski nodded.

"If you want, we won't tell Julian," Private smiled, "You probably should appear as the phantom in front of him."

"Thanks for the advice," Maurice nodded appreciatively, going to the place where he kept the costume. "This'll be great."

"And that closes the case," Kowalski said as the penguins finished rounding up the zoo animals.

….

Back at the tub in the spirit world, Skipper finished recapping the case.

"Interesting tale," Rarity commented, as she saw Caltrin and Lura walk to one of the tubs, as Shifu joined Genta and Miguel's.

"So, is this business you wanted to attend to in this world?" Sly asked Skipper.

"As a matter of fact, nope," Skipper replied, "I just made a wrong turn!" Skipper then dived back into the tub, and went swimming to the nearest portal.

"That was weird, even for him," Sly said, the raccoon keeping his cane by his side in case anything came up, "I'll be on my way now."

"Take care," Miguel said to the constable.

….

Back in the Cooper Van, Murray was doing his best to chase after the suspect.

"Don't lose him Murray! You have to be faster!" Bentley called.

"I'm going as fast as the Murray can!" Murray said, as the sniper's car veered through several alleyways.

"This is not good for my stomach," Dimitri frowned, leaning out the window and vomiting.

"This is awesome!" Carmen grinned as the van drove in several directions.

But, alas, the Cooper Gang lost track of the suspect.

"What was that shooter even trying to do?" Murray wondered aloud.

"Do you think it was someone after us?" Jing suggested.

"I don't think that's the case," the Panda King replied to his daughter. He then turned to the rest of the gang. "As you all can remember, there were only two bullets fired back there. Those shots killed both of the Crimson Sphere gang members we were tracking down."

"That is totally bad mojo," Dimitri nodded.

"You think they were the only targets all along?" Bentley said, picking up on what direction the Panda King was leading the conversation into.

"I believe that could very likely be the case," the Cooper Gang demolitions expert nodded in response, "I think there is an extremely good chance that someone else is tracking down these gang members, and unlike us, they are seeking to kill them!"

Bentley turned back to his laptop, "We have to find the next one, and fast!"


	9. A Hell of a Crime

**The Toon Files Episode 126: A Hell of a Crime.**

Sly and Carmelita were granted a room to stay in by Yubaba while they worked on the investigation. The raccoon thief went to it as nightfall came, and most of the spirits were just enjoying the bath, as Carmelita sat out on the room's deck and watched the flooded ground below, staring calmly.

"Sly," Carmelita spoke calmly, "Do you ever wonder if what we do might not be enough?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Sly asked, sitting beside his wife.

"Because well places like heaven and hell are still the systems used in a lot of worlds, plenty of words now have everyone goes here and if they act nice enough, they get off scott-free."

"That is unfair, I'm afraid," Sly nodded in agreement.

"I'm not advocating killing criminals, heck no," Carmelita assured, "It's just, it's times like these why I remind myself why I want to see all criminals behind bars, to make them face justice legally."

"And while we used to be on opposite sides of the law, we both fought for justice," Sly said, "And now that we've been working together officially for years, I'll always be by your side."

"So did you get any info?" Carmelita asked, changing the subject as she ate her dinner.

"Sounds like the victim and her friend Hailey had gotten jobs at the spirit village metal works," Sly said, "And Miguel didn't see where Yoko went after that scene the two girls made."

"The train left earlier tonight," Carmelita added, "I read it should be back tomorrow night. Shifu's neighbor Ivan and that Darrell guy went aboard."

"Would you want to use one of the tubs while we're here?" Sly suggested.

"Nah," Carmelita replied, yawning, "Besides, I didn't bring my swimwear."

"Drat," Sly chuckled teasingly, earning him a look from Carmelita. "Sorry…" he quickly said.

…..

The next morning, Sly and Carmelita were eating at the Wildcat café in Yubaba's. They ordered what they wanted for breakfast.

"This place has the best food, even with the special ingredient," Sly smirked, chowing down.

"Indeed, " Carmelita nodded, eating a steak and sipping a fine wine.

As the couple ate, Sly and Carmelita could hear a dark laugh behind them. "That sounds familiar…" the raccoon noted, as they both turned around to see two familiar faces.

"It's them?" Carmelita said, surprised, "What are they doing here?"

A few tables down from them were Belladonna the hellhound and her apprentice, Twilight Sparkle. 10 years ago, during the war, Twilight had been captured by a robot that Harrison Reiner sent to duplicate her form and she had been locked into hell to keep the rest of the TDC crew from learning the truth.

To be able to get out and warn her friends, Twilight had to make a deal with Belladonna and become her apprentice, and had the spent the last decade as a hell horse, though she still had her good nature in her.

"Sly, Carmelita, wasn't expecting to see you here," Twilight called.

"Did you both die?" Belladonna asked, "Can I have your soul?" she smirked to Sly.

"Sorry, hate to inform you, but we're here on business," Carmelita replied.

"Well, we're just kicking back here and taking a day off," Twilight said, "Today there's a special discount for demons on the cost of using the tubs."

"How have things been in your world?" Sly asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Oh, a little bit crazy," Twilight informed, "Belladonna here was just involved in a mystery a little while ago."

"Really? What kind?" Carmelita questioned.

"Let me tell you," Twilight replied.

…

**San Francisco, California, 1999.**

Ever since he had been murdered himself and eventually revived (multiple times), Charlie Barkin had reformed his ways. Now, as opposed to living in 1930s New Orleans, he was living in 1990s San Fransisco, with friends both old and new.

His best friend Itchy Itchiford still was his partner, and both had found new girlfriends in their new locale: Charlie was dating Sasha, a local Irish settler, while Itchy was seeing Bess. Sasha owned a local club for dogs, and all in all, everything was going good.

…..

One night, it was Itchy's birthday, and they were celebrating it at the dog club.

"Don't make too much of a mess," Sasha advised at Itchy began opening up all his presents, wrapping paper being tossed everywhere.

"Eh, we'll be heading to the arcade after this anyways," Charlie said, "There won't be much of a mess to clean up."

"I just wish you guys didn't eat a lot of pizza before the party," Bess sighed with a chuckle, stacking up the books, snacks, and gadgets Itchy was being given, "Now you don't have an appetite for the cake we bought."

"Sorry about that Bess," Itchy apologized.

Sasha gathered up the wrapping paper that was lying around on the ground. "Just let me go put this in the recycling bin out back, and we can go to the arcade," she grinned, holding the key to the back rooms of the club.

"All right!" Charlie and Itchy grinned.

"This'll be fun," Bess smiled, putting on a necklace Itchy had given her the other week.

…..

The 4 friends headed to an arcade that was higher up in the streets of San Francisco.

"You're not gonna beat my high score!" Charlie said, as the 4 played a multiplayer first person shooter.

Ultimately, Bess ended up with the highest score. "Take that Charlie," she smirked, sticking out her tongue.

"Let's go outside and enjoy the nice weather," Sasha said, "After that heat wave we had for the past few weeks, it's nice to feel a cool breeze."

As the dogs sat outside and enjoyed the night sky, Sasha noticed something. "Is that a fire down there?" she asked, pointing her paw to a building in the distance.

Charlie squinted his eyes. "Hey, you're right," he nodded to his girlfriend.

Bess looked close as well. "Wait a minute…" she said, making out the shape of the building. "I think….that that's the club!"

"What?!" Charlie, Itchy, and Sasha gasped.

"We have to get down there!" Sasha exclaimed, as the 4 took off running as fast as their paws could take them.

…..

Indeed, the dogs' worries were confirmed when they arrived. Luckily, a human had called the firemen and the fire had been put out by the time they made it back, but the whole club was nearly in ruins.

"It's practically all gone," Sasha sighed, looking over the burnt tables and sitting down in a burnt chair.

"This has not been a good birthday for me," Itchy nodded.

All of a sudden, the 4 dogs heard a wicked laugh. "Oh no, you gotta be kidding me," Charlie frowned, recognizing quite well where the laugh came from.

In a puff of purple smoke, Belladonna the hellhound, the evil cousin of Annabelle, appeared before them. "Oh, this is so precious, I wish I had brought my camera," she chuckled, having her fire imps bring her a cup of tea.

"Why you…" Sasha groaned.

"No no, keep feeling bad, I don't want the show to end so soon," Belladonna grinned smugly.

"You did this to us, didn't you?!" Charlie accused Belladonna, "You knew it was Itchy's birthday, so you wanted to ruin the fun for everyone!"

"Oh, come on Chuck, you know this isn't my style," Belladonna replied, the hellhound forming a defense, "Well it is true I love your pain and suffering, doing something like this wouldn't exactly be encouraging you to come to my side now, would it?"

Charlie stepped back and thought for a minute. As much as he hated to admit it, Belladonna did have a point there.

"But as a hellhound, you have fire powers!" Bess accused, "It had to have been you who burned down the club!"

"No it wasn't!" a second voice called suddenly.

"Aw, my apprentice," Belladonna grinned.

….

Charlie found himself suddenly warped to another realm via magic. "What's happening to me?" he gasped, looking around.

"I took you here, Charlie Barkin, because I have a message for you," Twilight Sparkle informed him, stepping forward.

"Oh yeah, Ms. Sparkle, what is that message?" the German Shepard asked.

"I was observing the city as part of my duties tonight," Twilight informed Charlie, "And during my job, I noticed something rather interesting."

"What's rather interesting?" Charlie questioned.

"I can tell you this much," Twilight smirked, "My teacher Belladonna did not burn down the club."

"Oh yeah?!" Charlie replied, "If it wasn't Miss Bite is just as Bad as her Bark, who could it have been?"

"One of your friends is the one who burned down the club," Twilight revealed, flying around Charlie with her hellish bat wings.

"My friends?" Charlie asked, surprised, "None of them would ever do something like this! Even in my bad days I didn't resort to arson."

"Oh yes, Ms. Belladonna likes to look over your past record," Twilight informed.

"But how could it have been any of them?" Charlie asked next, "There was no fire when we left the party, and when we noticed the fire, we were at the arcade, miles away! None of us left during that time!"

"This is all I'll tell you," Twilight replied, "The rest I want to see if you can figure it out on your own."

The hellhorse then said a chant in a demonic tongue that Charlie could never hope to manage to pronounce, and he and Twilight were back in the club.

"I've told him what he needs to know," Twilight informed Belladonna.

"So long Chuckie!" Belladonna laughed, "I'm gonna relax in a nice warm tub. Toodles!"

…

The 4 dogs began cleaning up the wreckage of the club.

"Ehh, what's this stuff lying all over the floor?" Bess asked, "It feels like the wallpaper peeled off."

"Fire can do that, if I recall correctly," Sasha responded, "Ick." She had stepped in some sticky stuff that was lying on the ground.

"What did Twilight Sparkle tell you Charlie?" Itchy asked his best friend.

"Oh, just some crazy idea," Charlie replied with a laugh, "She said that one of the 3 of you was responsible for the fire that happened here."

What Charlie didn't notice was that one of the 3 dogs briefly got a scared look upon those words, but luckily for them the others didn't notice.

"That's crazy," Bess nodded, "We were all at the arcade uptown."

"None of us would have had the time to get back here set a fire," Sasha added.

Itchy looked out one of the windows. "Some of the witnesses are giving their reports to the cop dogs," the wiener dog said, "We probably should give our testimonials as well, I mean, Sasha owned this place."

"Let's go," the Irish Settler nodded.

….

Right outside the club, the K9 witnesses were reporting what they had seen to the cops.

"Did you see any suspicious figures?" Charlie asked one pitbull, wanting to help take charge in the investigation.

"No, I didn't see anybody in the club," the pitbull replied, "Though I did think somebody was inside it at the time. Thankfully no one got hurt in the fire."

"Wait a minute," Charlie said, confused, "What do you mean you thought someone was inside at the time?"

"I thought that because I could see a little light inside the club," the dog witness explained, "However, it was really little, I thought it was probably just a night light or something."

Charlie gasped at that comment, as a theory began to pop into his head, but he had to be sure. He ran back into the club and began to look around.

"It should be around here somewhere," the former gangster dog said to himself.

Charlie made his way to the back room and looked through several containers. Besides the fire damage, the back rooms were not messy in terms of clutter at all.

It was then he knew that Twilight was right.

"So, she was telling the truth after all," Charlie chuckled to himself, "Because now I know exactly who did this!"

…

Charlie went back outside the burnt club. "Hey guys, could you come back inside?" Charlie asked his friends and girlfriend.

"Sure Charlie," Itchy nodded, the 3 walking inside.

In the main room of the fire damaged club, Sasha noticed that Charlie had set up a chair and got lots of new wrapping paper from the dog party store down the street. "What's that for Charlie?" she asked nervously.

"Oh, just to explain the trick of what happened here at the club tonight," Charlie grinned, "The trick you used…..Sasha!"

Itchy and Bess gasped. "Sasha's the arsonist?" Bess asked, "How could that be possible?"

"Yeah Charlie," Sasha nodded, "We were all at the arcade when we noticed the fire. How could I have set it?"

"You made use of standard birthday procedure," Charlie revealed, pulling out a slice of cake. "I found it odd when that pitbull said he saw a tiny light inside the club, for a minute I was wondering what that could be. And then I realized it had to be a birthday candle on top of a slice of cake making that small light."

"How can I start a fire with cake?" Sasha demanded to know.

"it wasn't just cake," Charlie continued, "You gathered up all the wrapping paper and set it around the chair you set the cake slice on. As the candle melted, it would fall and light the wrapping paper on fire. What you thought was wallpaper Bess was actually the wrapping paper."

"And that sticky stuff Sasha stepped in…" Itchy realized, "It was the cake, wasn't it?"

"That's precisely it," Charlie grinned confidently, "When were at the arcade, Sasha was the one who suggested we go inside. She needed us to see the fire so her alibi would be set."

"But where's your proof?" Sasha asked from Charlie.

"I checked the back rooms," the German Shepard said, "The rooms only you have the keys for. There was no wrapping paper in them, despite the fact you said you had tossed it away. You gave your whole scheme away."

Sasha sighed, her trick had been deduced. "You win Charlie," she said.

"But Sasha, why would you do this?" Bess asked.

"It was to help the orphan puppies," Sasha revealed, "The orphanage was in need of money, and I knew that repairing this place wouldn't take much, so I was hoping to use the insurance money to help them."

"I'm not sure arson and fraud were the best way to handle this," Charlie said to his girlfriend, "But since no one got hurt, I think we might be able to work this all out."

"Thanks Charlie," Sasha smiled, nuzzling him affectionately.

"I'm happy to know you have a dark side," Charlie chuckled.

"Oh shut it," Sasha smirked, giving Charlie a light smack. The 4 dogs all laughed.

…

"And that's what happened," Twilight Sparkle said to Sly and Carmelita.

"We really seem to have a lot of other people involved in mysteries, haven't we?" Sly commented to his wife.

"We really have," Carmelita nodded.

"I think I'll be staying around this place for a few days," Belladonna smirked, "This hellhound has earned herself a break!"

"Earned it by doing what, I don't want to know," Sly chuckled

"Never mind her ringtail," Carmelita said, "We should continue the investigation."

"See you around Twilight," Sly waved, "It was nice seeing you again."

"We hope to claim your soul," the hell pony chuckled in a half-sarcastic tone, waving goodbye.

….

As the day went on in the Spirit World, the investigation continued. The two Interpol officers mostly asked for statements from potential witnesses, but no big leads came up.

"The train from Swamp Bottom is about to pull into the station officers," Nica informed.

"Thank you for telling us Mrs. Piece," Carmelita nodded, as she and Sly went to go see the rich spirits return to Yubaba's.

At the train platform, they saw Darrell Chimer get off.

"How was your trip Mr. Chimer?" Sly asked, getting bad vibes from the goat spirit.

"Mostly good, though Ivan never came out of his cabin the whole train ride. He paid all that money just to sleep in a train car. What a waste…" Darrell said.

A bad feeling came on both Carmelita and Sly as several other spirits got off the train, but Ivan was nowhere to be seen. They ran onto the train. "What was Mr. Stanton's cabin?" Carmelita asked Nina the wolf, who was one of the victims of the Holbrook Junkyard prison mystery 20 years ago, now working as a conductor.

"Cabin 4B," she told them.

….

Sly and Carmelita found the door and had to knock it down. "Mr. Stanton, are you in here?" Sly called. No response was given.

"Sly, you're gonna want to see this," Carmelita gulped.

Inside the bathroom of Ivan's cabin, the mongoose lied dead in the bathtub, a knife in his chest. Like Yoko before him, Ivan's eyes were pitch white, no trace of pupils. His soul had been sent to Oblivion.


	10. On A Wing and A Scare

**The Toon Files Episode 127: On a Wing and a Scare.**

Yubaba, Haku, Lin, and Quistis arrived at the scene where the second victim had been uncovered.

"What can you tell me about this one?" Yubaba asked the mortal officers.

"By examining the body," Carmelita replied, "It looks like the time of death was sometime last night, after the train had taken off from here."

"Then that narrows down the suspect list," Quistis said, "The killer has to be someone who was on the train to Swamp Bottom."

"But there's still one more problem," Sly spoke up, "The room was locked from the inside, how were they able to get in? There's no signs of forced entry."

"Maybe they climbed into through the window," Haku suggested.

"But if the victim was killed when the train was still moving, how could anyone traverse the sides of the train like that?" Carmelita pointed out.

….

Several of the other spirits stood on the side of the bathhouse and looked out from their rooms at the scene.

"Ivan….this is horrible," Shifu sighed, the red panda sad about the loss of his neighbor at Yubaba's.

"Was it the same spirit who killed Yoko?" Hailey asked Sly and Carmelita.

"Though the methods of murder were completely different, we have reason to believe that yes, both incidents are the work of the same killer," Carmelita informed the residents of the bathhouse.

This caused a murmur between everyone present. Even Komanji, the radish spirit, and the coals looked shock.

"I think I might know what's causing all this," one of the spirits said nervously.

"What is it?" Sly asked, hoping this would prove to be a lead.

"It has to be that mysterious dark spirit everyone keeps seeing!" the spirit explained nervously, "it manages to move magically and attack its victims in impossible ways!"

"We'll keep that in mind," Carmelita said, "But for now, for all your safety, we recommend travelling in groups if you go out of the bathhouse or into a more isolated section of it."

Most of the spirits were fine with that, as they mostly just used the café and tubs.

…..

Back in the Cooper van, Bentley was hacking as fast as he could to find the identity of the next Crimson Sphere Gang member.

"This is terrible," Jing said, reading some articles online, "According to what I read, the Crimson Spheres were able to track down targets who were in witness protection."

"That's horrible," the Panda King nodded at his daughter's discovery.

"Whoever the people in this gang are, they've been committing murders as far back as at least 20 years ago," Jing read off, "I can't find any names, most of the victims were people of every class, they killed at least 1 cop…."

Bentley smirked as his knowledge of code and hacking was paying off. "Bingo, we got ourselves a lock-on!" he announced to his friends.

"Where can we find them, Bentley?" Murray asked, still driving like crazy.

"According to my data, our person just used their credit card to check into the Wuhu Island hotel," Bentley said, "Time we hit the beach, guys…" he smirked.

…

**Wuhu Island, 2011.**

The tropical island had continued to be a popular resort for people and species of all worlds long after the war ended. They had added several new attractions over the years, including planes and even jetpacks for guests to use.

So it made sense that this was where Rabbit and Fox chose to spend their 20th anniversary. Both were now in their early 40s, and most of their children were off to college, they could finally enjoy some time off from their job.

"I love it here," Rabbit smiled to his wife, "The fresh air, the chance to practice kung fu, this is perfection. Actually, I take that back, perfection is you."

"You tease," Fox blushed, sunbathing in her new swimsuit. The couple had made Wuhu Island their regular anniversary spot for years now.

"What do you wanna do later today?" Rabbit asked Fox.

"How about some cycling?" Fox suggested, "That'll be fun."

"Sure," Rabbit nodded, "At least we won't into any jobs we have to do here."

"Don't say that, you'll jinx us," Fox chuckled, yawning.

"Want me to get you something to drink?" Rabbit offered, "It's getting really hot."

"I think a lemonade would be really nice," Fox said, "Be quick now."

"Coming right up," Rabbit nodded, turning and running back towards the Wuhu Hotel.

…..

As Rabbit walked into the hotel lobby, 3 other guests at the hotel were returning from their activities around the island. They included Nella Atkins, a bear, Kyle Roberts, a hawk, and Ted Barclay, a lion.

"Did you all enjoy your sports?" the concierge asked the guests.

"We did," Nella nodded, "Did Arin ever come out of his room, guys?" Nella asked her friends.

"No, Mr. Lars never left his room," a maid informed the friends.

"That's odd," Kyle said, "You think he'd of all people be out and about."

Rabbit was over getting Fox her lemonade. "Ok, Fox likes hers with a lemon slice," Rabbit said, knowing his wife's taste in foods.

But as he was pouring the cup, all of a sudden he heard a loud scream in terror coming from upstairs. "What the hell was that?!" he exclaimed.

Rabbit quickly raced upstairs to see Ted, Kyle, and Nella looking on in horror at something. Rabbit looked inside the room, and there was Arin, the zebra, duct taped to the wall, having bleed to death from a stab wound.

"I should've figured…" Rabbit thought to himself, his and Fox's anniversary plans had to be put on hold.

…..

Rabbit and Fox came back up the scene of the crime in their regular attire. They told the 3 friends of the victim that they were the Toon Town police force, and were qualified to investigate what had happened.

"What can you tell about the time of death?" Rabbit asked Fox.

"Based on my examination, the time of death is probably about an hour ago," Fox explained, as she had to pull the countless rolls of duct tape that was attaching the victim to the wall.

"Why did the killer attach him to the wall like this?" Rabbit asked, pulling out his magnifying glass and looking for clues.

"Maybe the murderer is someone into theatrics?" Fox suggested, "If they wanted to subdue the victim, this seems highly impractical. It would take at least 20 minutes to prepare all this tape, and that's if he was unconscious or already dead when they got put on the wall."

"Who had the keycard to this room?" Rabbit asked Ted, Nella, and Kyle.

"We all did," Kyle said, the hawk pulling out multiple keycards, "We had a funny little incident a few years ago when lots of us lost our keycards while out doing the sports, so we got multiple copies of everyone just to be safe."

"So all of you had access to this room?" Fox said.

"What are you saying?" Nella frowned, "You don't think any of us are the killer, do you?"

"We talked with the hotel staff," Fox explained, "They said they did not see any suspicious figures around Wuhu Island, so the killer is likely someone the victim knew personally."

"But we were out at the time of the crime," Ted said.

"Can you prove it?" Rabbit asked.

…..

Kyle brought his friends, Rabbit, and Fox into his room, "Here's a copy of the schedule of our flight sports we did today," the hawk said, handing the cops a sheet.

Rabbit and Fox looked it over. From Fox's estimation, the time of death was around 1:30 PM. At 1 PM, Nella had taken a flight in a plane that ended around 1:50. Kyle went near the top of the mountain Maka Wuhu at 1:20 and Ted commandeered a jetpack at 1:15 and was seen landing at 1:45.

"If you talk to the people handling those things," Nella said, "You'll be able to confirm with the island's staff that we were all at those places just as the schedule says."

"Hey, what's this syringe doing here?" Rabbit asked, seeing one lie on Kyle's bed.

"This is for me," Kyle said, "My blood sugar is fairly low, so I need regular insulin shots," the hawk explained.

"I see," Rabbit nodded, setting the syringe down.

"Let's see your rooms," Fox told Nella and Ted.

…..

The bear and lion showed the police officers similar situations. Their rooms were filled with mostly inconspicuous objects, the only thing that stood out as unusual to either of the cops was gold golf clubs in Nella's room and fishing rods in Ted's.

"We know this island has many great fishing spots," Ted explained to Rabbit and Fox.

"And I'm better when I'm using my personalized clubs," Nella said about her prized possession, "My paws have a better grip with them."

"When was the last time any of you saw Arin?" Fox questioned the suspects.

"It was last night, around 9," Kyle recalled, "We had all come back from a long day of swordplay, and we settled into our rooms."

"We knocked on his door this morning," Nella added, "But he called out from inside to not come in, cause he wanted to sleep in, he really sounded strained."

"So, we let a sleeping zebra lie, and we went out for the day," Ted continued.

"For how long were all 3 of you together?" Rabbit asked.

"Up until those 3 activities listed, we were always travelling as a group," Nella explained, "None of us had the time to come back here, if that's what you're getting at."

"Now give us time to grieve for our friend," Kyle frowned.

…..

Rabbit and Fox went up to the roof of the hotel. "What do you think?" Rabbit asked his wife about the case.

"The balcony to the victim's room is accessible," Fox analyzed, "If Nella tried flying her plane towards the window, they would have heard it, and I doubt it was her."

"Kyle was only out of sight for about 10 minutes," Rabbit said, feeling the breeze against his fur, "He wouldn't have had enough time to tape up the body and stick on the wall like he was found."

"Ted's jetpack is up in the air, no pun intended," Fox continued, "But he's in the same boat as Kyle is, there's not enough time to tape the body to the wall."

"That whole thing with the tape still bugs me," Rabbit nodded in response, "Why would the killer, whoever it is, bother to do that?"

"Maybe they were sending a message to someone else?" Fox suggested, "That's often was a more theatrically-decorated corpse serves to tell."

"We should go back to his room and see if we can find any more clues," Rabbit nodded, "We should check if we're missing something."

….

Back in Arin's room, Rabbit and Fox looked around, covering every nook and cranny.

"The victim had a bottle of painkillers in his room," Fox noted, "Or maybe the killer brought them in.

Rabbit was looking at the carpet of the room, the small kung fu master was able to notice very minute details.

"I can make out the blood stains where the killer must've stabbed him," he took note, "Though there's something that's bothering me about them…"

"What about them?" Fox asked.

"The way they are going over to the wall….it looks too….even," Rabbit commented.

Fox paused for a moment. She had a theory. "I think I might know what's going on here," she smirked to Rabbit, "I just have to check one thing to be sure of my theory."

Fox ran over and examined Arin's body again. "Look at this Rabbit," she called to her husband, "There appear to be marks on the victim's neck that suggest they were strained, something like this takes a while to form."

"What are you saying?" Rabbit asked, though he was picking up on the clues as well.

"I'm saying I know who the killer is," Fox grinned proudly, "I know what their little trick was!"

…..

Rabbit and Fox called all 3 of the suspects into a meeting room next to the hotel lobby.

"What's this big news you have for us?" Nella asked.

"We know who killed Arin Lars," Fox replied bluntly.

"And we know the trick the culprit used to fool us," Rabbit nodded.

"You do?" Nella, Ted, and Kyle asked in unison, "Then who was it?"

Rabbit and Fox turned to each other briefly and smirked, then turned back to the suspects. "The culprit was you…..Kyle Roberts!" Fox revealed.

"What?!" Nella and Ted exclaimed, turning to their hawk friend, "That can't be true, right? Tell them Kyle!"

"That's absurd," Kyle said to the detective couple, "How could I have killed Arin? You said yourself it would take a very long time to tape him to the wall, and I was skydiving at the time."

"You're right, that proves you're not the killer," Rabbit smirked, "However, that theory falls apart…..if the victim was already taped to the wall to begin with!"

"Huh?!" The trio of friends gasped.

"We saw that Arin's neck had strain marks on them," Fox explained, "That could only be caused if his neck was in an odd position for a long while. With being attached to the wall, his neck would have no support, causing those marks."

"You probably attached him to the wall last night," Rabbit continued, "Perhaps it might even had been his idea, as you and him made sure no one opened his door and saw him this morning."

"When you went to the hang glider this afternoon, you flew back towards the hotel and entered the room through the balcony. You stabbed him then, and thanks to the breeze above the roof, were able to escape on the glider," Fox revealed next.

"But where's your proof I did any of this?" Kyle demanded to know.

"The syringe you had in your room was our biggest clue," Rabbit finished with a smirk, "I noticed the blood marks leading to the wall were in a rather even line. You used your syringe to extract some of his blood and make decoy blood marks on the floor to disguise the true scene of the crime. What you were willing to show us gave yourself away, Mr. Roberts."

Kyle slumped back in his chair, defeated. Nella and Ted could not believe what they had just seen.

"But why Kyle?" Nella asked.

"I had cheated my way through my final exam," the hawk admitted, "I needed a passing grade to get into my engineering job. Arin found out what I was doing, and he tried blackmailing. I told him that I was going to pay him off on this trip, and I brought the knife so he'd be silenced…"

"Book him," Rabbit told the Wuhu island security staff.

"Now to resume our anniversary," Fox smirked, "Just in time for dinner."

…

As Kyle was booked, the Cooper Van pulled up outside of the Wuhu Hotel.

Dimitri stayed in the van to watch over Carmen and Sylvia as the others raced inside to find the Crimson Sphere gang member.

"Oh Bentley, Murray, what are you doing here?" Rabbit asked, having recognized Sly's friends.

"We came here for the case," Murray explained, panting from doing some running.

"The case? We just solved that," Fox replied, "Sorry to disappoint you…"

"Huh?" Bentley said, seeing Kyle being taken in by a police force. "Whatever that was, we're not talking about that."

"Then what are you talking about?" Rabbit asked.

"We're talking to you," Jing said, pointing towards Ted Barclay.

"Wha? Me?" Ted asked, concerned.

"We know about your time in the Crimson Spheres Mr. Barclay," Bentley said, displaying the gang's logo.

"The Crimson what?" Fox asked, confused, she and Rabbit had never heard of this.

Ted's eyes began to twitch. He thought his connections to the organization would never be uncovered, especially so out of the blue like such.

"We're taking you back to Interpol, where you'll spill the whole beans on your gang…mmm beans," Murray grinned.

The Panda King then noticed, through the glare of the sun, a red light appear in the hotel. "Duck!" he quickly called to Ted.

"Huh?" Ted asked, but all of a sudden an extremely fast bullet shot through him, killing him.

"No!" Bentley exclaimed, turning and seeing a mysterious figure in the distance.

The sniper had struck again.


	11. The Mobile Locked Room

**The Toon Files Episode 128: The Mobile Locked Room.**

"Shots fired!" Rabbit called, the Wuhu Resort staff taking cover.

"No," the Panda king frowned, "The killer's already claimed his victim," he said, pointing to Ted's body.

"What the hell is going on?!" Nella cried, the only one of the group who was neither dead nor going to be arrested now.

"There's no time to explain," Bentley said, rolling his wheelchair back to the Cooper Van as fast as he could.

"You guys get into contact with Interpol in our world and don't tell them you saw us, mention the Crimson Spheres!" Jing called to Rabbit and Fox.

"I still have no clue what's going on," Fox said.

"Neither do I," Rabbit nodded, as the two raced back to the portal to Toon Town, "But we have a job to do!"

…

At Yubaba's bathhouse in the spirit world, Sly and Carmelita were going over the list of suspects for the two murders.

"There's Darrell Chimer," Carmelita said to begin with, "The vibes I'm getting from him are….really bad, to say the least."

"But as we've learned," Sly said not as a disagreement with his wife's thoughts but instead a continuation, "Having a solid alibi does not mean one is not the culprit," he said, bringing out his notepad.

"That Pierce couple, Nica and Domo, they don't really have a connection to either victim, yet they really seem to keep talking with us," Carmelita commented, "Maybe they want to make sure we don't find anything important."

"They are a couple, they could easily be working together," Sly nodded, "Like us," he added romantically.

"Zip it ringtail," Carmelita replied, "Then there's Hailey. Maybe she had a grudge against the rich spirits that Yoko wasn't willing to support, so she torched her, and she thought she wouldn't be a suspect?" she theorized.

"Though we saw her as the train took off," Sly said, "And then there's that guy Miguel, he seems charismatic, but even in the spirit of doubting appearances he doesn't seem like the kind who would commit a murder."

"I found something odd reexamining the scene of Yoko's death," Carmelita revealed.

"What was it?" Sly asked.

"Unlike all the other rooms here in Yubaba's, the floorboards are different, there's a tiny cut between the walls and the edge of the boards," the fox inspector explained.

"That is odd," Sly nodded, "But that still doesn't explain how Yoko got set on fire without the rest of the room being fire damaged."

"We have a ways to go before we can crack the case," Carmelita noted.

….

The Cooper Van was able to stay behind the mysterious sniper's vehicle, as there were less places to try to lose someone on Wuhu Island.

"Faster Murray, he's heading towards a portal!" Bentley called.

As Jing was trying to access her laptop again, she found she was getting some interference, but she was able to turn it on after a few tries, pulling up more articles on the Crimson Spheres in the midst of the chase.

"This is awesome!" Carmen grinned, she and Sylvia had fastened their seatbelts.

"He's gone through the portal, Murray man!" Dimitri gasped.

"He ain't getting away, the Murray's speed behind the wheel is unmatched!" Murray grinned, shifting gears.

"I'm so glad Rabbit and Fox aren't giving out speeding tickets," Bentley commented, having to hold on to his wheelchair tight as they went through the portal after the sniper.

"Hey Bentley," Murray said as they began to emerge on the other side of the portal, "Why's everything so….blocky here?"

….

**Bricksburg, LEGO World, 2014.**

Creativity is an important concept in the world. Imagination can make anything possible. This is especially true for the citizens of the LEGO worlds, as building new and amazing structures was commonplace for them.

A group of master builders who this especially applied to included Emmet Brickowski, an ordinary construction worker who became "The Special", Wyldstyle, a tech-savvy fighter, Batman, the DC Comics hero who likes darkness, Princess Unikitty, a unicorn/cat mix who always tried to remain positive and think happy thoughts, and Benny, a 1980s-something space guy who loved his spaceship and always loved to make new ones.

After helping to reform President Business, the group of master builders decided to go throughout the Lego worlds to promote new and creative ways to build things. They were driving down the Brickburgs highway in a fancy RV they had built.

"Ooh, that's my jam!" Emmet grinned as Everything is Awesome played on the radio, though it was no longer the only song the residents had to listen to.

"I'm changing the station," Wyldstyle chuckled.

Batman was sitting atop the RV. "It's night out, I prefer to stay in the darkness!" he said dramatically.

"Emmet, could you go check on Benny, we haven't heard from him in a while," Wyldstyle asked as she drove the RV.

"Sure," Emmet replied.

….

Emmet tried knocking on the door to Benny's room in the RV, but there was no response and the door was locked.

"Can I get the spare key piece?" Emmet asked Wyldstyle, who nodded and handed him the needed brick piece.

Emmet went and opened Benny's door, and, to his surprise, saw Benny lying on the floor of his room, holding his head and looking in pain.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….." Emmet said, dumbfounded.

"Spaceship….spaceship," Benny laughed dizzily, before he passed out."

"Wyldstyle, I think we have a problem," Emmet said, walking back towards the driver's seat.

"What is it?" she asked to Emmet in response.

"It looks like someone or something hit Benny and knocked him out," Emmet said in a confused yet matter of fact tone.

"Oh no," Princess Unikitty frowned, coming out of her room, "I hate it when people get boo-boos. Boo-boos are a negative thing, and there's no need for negativity in the world."

"I'm gonna go see if I can figure out what happened," Emmet said.

"You do that," Wyldstyle nodded, "I can't take my eyes off the road, especially when there's these crazy speeders I'm seeing."

….

Emmet went back into Benny's room and tried waking the spaceman up.

"Hey Benny, it's Emmet," the Special smiled, nudging him to wake him up, "Can you hear me, man?"

"I think I can hear the sounds of space," Benny said, slowly but surely getting back to his feet.

"Do you know what happened to you?" Emmet asked.

"What happened to me? What do you mean?" the 1980s something space guy replied.

"I mean what hit you on the head and knocked you out?" Emmet asked, "You got a big bruise there."

"I don't really remember," Benny replied honestly, "All I remember was planning my next spaceship, and then I heard footsteps in my room, and when I turned to see who it was, I felt something hit me."

Emmet went wide eyed in surprise. At first he thought what happened to Benny was a simple accident, but now it was clear that was had transpired was the actions of someone who was in the RV at the same time as them. He was dealing with a mystery, and because of the fact that Benny's door could only be locked from the inside without a key, it was clear that this was a locked room mystery.

…

"Do you remember where you set your key brick?" Emmet asked Benny.

"In my drawer," Benny said, pulling it out and confirming its location.

"So the culprit managed to get inside a locked room somehow," Emmet figured, wanting to act like a detective as he pushed Benny's sheets aside.

"What are you gonna do now?" Benny asked the Special.

"I'm gonna go question the suspects," Emmet replied confidently, but when he went to question Wyldstyle, he was back to his more timid demeanor.

"So did you find out what happened?" she asked him.

"Uh, no, no I didn't," Emmet replied honestly, "I do know that someone hit him, it was no accident."

"It wasn't an accident huh?" Wyldstyle said, surprised, "Do you know who did it?"

"I was wanting to ask you some questions," Emmet replied.

"I was sitting up here at the driver's seat, driving for the past hour," Wyldstyle instantly replied, knowing where Emmet would be going with what he was saying.

"How did you know I was going to say that?" Emmet asked.

"Lucky guess," Wyldstyle replied sarcastically, "Even with the spare key nearby, I couldn't get out of this seat without this thing crashing."

"I see your point, I'm gonna go to talk to everyone else, don't go away," Emmet said.

"I'm the one driving," Wyldstyle reminded once again.

…

Emmet went into Princess Unikitty's room on the RV.

"Is Benny going to be ok?" she asked Emmet.

"Oh, he'll be fine," Emmet assured, "But he thinks someone attacked him."

"Someone attacked him?" Unikitty frowned, "That's a bad thing!"

"What are all these things on the floor?" Emmet asked, nearing tripping when he had come into the room.

"Some positive things to help keep our spirits up," Unikitty explained, "Fans to keep us cool, string because it's a fun thing, and gold clubs because golf is fun."

"Golf is awesome," Emmet nodded, having read the instructions to the game back in his apartment.

"Where were you the past 15 minutes?" he asked Unikitty next.

"I was in this room the whole time," Unikitty recalled.

Emmet thought back, he did remember Unikitty's room being locked from the inside moments before he checked on Benny's room.

"I think your story checks out," Emmet said, still not sure of how to handle this mystery.

"I hope you can figure out who did it, Emmet," the Princess encouraged.

"Next up, Batman," Emmet said to himself.

….

Emmet realized he hadn't planned out everything as while as he should have when he tried to climb the side of the RV to get to where Batman was standing.

"Do….do you need me to come down there?" the Dark Knight asked, seeing Emmet shiver as he very, very slowly tried to climb up the side of a moving vehicle.

"No, I can handle this," Emmet replied nervously through clenched teeth.

After several minutes of climbing, Emmet was able to reach the top and slowly make his way over to Batman.

"You wanted to talk to me about something?" Batman asked in his raspy voice.

Emmet explained to the Caped Crusader what happened to Benny. "I'm trying to figure out who the culprit is," he said.

"Let me handle that," Batman grinned smugly, "I am the world's greatest detective."

"Aren't you doing batarang practice?" Emmet asked, maintaining his balance.

"Holy cow, you're right," Batman realized, pulling out the small batarang bricks, "I never miss with these, just watch me," he smirked, producing a target made of cardboard.

It took several throws for any of them to hit the target. "First try," Batman grinned proudly to Emmet, who carefully made his way back into the RV.

…

Emmet felt relief as he was no longer trying to balance or stand on the edge or roof of a moving vehicle.

"I feel so much better," he said to himself as he walked back into Benny's room.

"Well, I don't," Benny replied, Unikitty having brought him an ice pack brick to help with the pain in the head.

"Just think about the spaceships you'll be building once we get to our destination," Emmet encouraged, he had a talent for helping people feel better about themselves, it's what convinced President Business to change his ways.

"You're right Emmet," Benny nodded, the spaceman putting on another helmet, one which had the same crack in the bottom center of the piece as his other helmets.

"You have spares of that right on hand?" Emmet asked, surprised.

"Of course I do," Benny smiled in reply, "I have a bunch of these already inside just in case a need ever comes up."

Suddenly, Emmet paused and began to think about something he had seen earlier in the day. An image was popping in his head after a few moments.

"There something the matter Emmet?" Benny asked, concerned.

"I think I know what happened to you Benny," Emmet revealed, "And I think I know exactly who the culprit is!"

….

Emmet walked back to Princess Unkitty's room and knocked on the door. The cat/unicorn hybrid opened up.

"Ah Emmet, nice to see you again," Unikitty smiled, "Did you find out what happened to Benny?"

"Yes I did Unikitty," Emmet nodded in response, "I know exactly who hit Benny!"

"Who was it?" Unikitty asked, in suspense.

"It was you, Unikitty!" Emmet revealed.

"ME? WHA?!" Unikitty gasped.

"We can take a seat on the double decker couch if you wish," Emmet offered, as he began his deduction, "I know how you managed to set up the locked room."

"How did I do an unhappy thing like that?" Unikitty frowned.

"You were actually in Benny's room to begin with," Emmet explained, beginning to reveal the trick, "You hit Benny with a hard amount of bricks then hid under the covers. You then waited for me or anyone else to come into the room, as you needed a witness for your plan."

"That's crazy," Unikitty chuckled nervously.

"Is it? Maybe it is," Emmet admitted, "But you went the extra step. You locked the door to your own room using the items you showed me that were lying on the ground earlier. You tied a string to a golf club and attached the other end of the string to the fan."

"How would that help me lock a door?" Unikitty asked.

"The fan pulled on the string," Emmet continued, "Making the gold club bricks tip on its side and lock the door. Eventually the club would fall, unlocking it again. After I found Benny and ran back out to tell Wyldstyle, you quickly made your way back into your room and your alibi was set."

"But what's your proof?" Unikitty said as a last defense.

"Why else would you have a fan, some string, and a golf club right in front of your door?" Emmet reiterated, "That's proof enough that you were the one who did this."

"But why Unikitty?" Benny asked, having overheard the deduction, "Why did you do this to me?"

"I was mad," Unikitty confessed, "You borrowed some special, one of a kind bricks I was hoping could be used to help rebuild Cloud Cuckooland in your spaceships…"

Benny realized his mistake. "I'm sorry I did that, I can give them back to you."

"And I'm sorry I hit you," Unikitty apologized, "I know now there are better ways to deal with anger."

"Friends again?" Emmet smiled to both of them.

"Yay!" Unikitty cheered, having managed to not explode into anger over what had happened.

"Stupid road ragaholics!" they heard Wyldstyle yell at two vehicles that were speeding down the Bricksburg highway.

…..

"I would make a line about someone being a brick head, but this isn't the time," Bentley said as the Cooper Van kept in pursuit of the sniper.

"I'll try to shoot his tires," the Panda King offered, pulling out his fireworks and aiming out the window.

"No don't!" Bentley called, "At this distance we could make some of the citizens get into a nasty accident."

"it's no good even if it was clear," Murray frowned as the sniper's car picked up speed and gained a further lead, "He's about to go through another portal!"

"We can't lose this crazy dude again!" Dimitri frowned.

"We must bring him to justice!" Sylvia nodded, surprised to find herself agreeing with the lizard.

All of a sudden, the Master Builders' RV pulled in front of the Cooper Van, and Murray slammed on the breaks to avoid a collision.

"He got away," Jing frowned, as the Cooper Gang lost precious time.

"Let's head back to the hideout," Bentley strategized, "We need to plan our next move more carefully.

Carmen noticed her sister had a much sterner look then what she usually displayed. "Whatcha thinking about sis?" she asked.

"This doesn't make sense," Sylvia said.

"Indeed, young one," Jing nodded to Carmelita and Sly's daughters, "Everywhere we go, this sniper is always one step ahead of us. What is going on here?!"


	12. Beyond Oblivion

**The Toon Files Episode 129: Beyond Oblivion.**

In the Spirit World, Sly and Carmelita met up with Haku and Quistis. As they walked and talked, the two mortals noticed some young cub spirits run by, playing and laughing.

"They died so young?" Sly frowned, "That's sad."

"There is a special factor for that, actually," Haku replied, "Those who die young don't stay at the age they died at, unlike a lot of other spirits, like Simba and Shifu. They are permitted to get older, and they can choose the age they stay at, and then the magic keeps them at the age they want."

"interesting," Carmelita nodded upon hearing this information.

"I talked with the conductor of the train to Swamp Bottom," Quistis read off her notes, "According to him, the train departed just as scheduled without incident. The voyages to and from Swamp Bottom were made without any unexpected stops."

"There goes my theory that the killer made the train stop to pull off the trick," Sly sighed, snapping his fingers.

"We can't give up yet ringtail," Carmelita said to her husband, "Yubaba hired us to solve this case, we can't let her down."

"Let's go get some lunch," Sly said, the raccoon thief's belly began to rumble.

…..

Rarity was coming out of the Wildcat café as the Interpol officers were arriving. "I made these beautiful tablecloths the other day," she smiled proudly, "The customers really seem to be liking it."

"How nice," Carmelita smiled, nodding to the pony, as she and Sly sat at a booth this time.

"And what could be the connection between the two victims?" Sly asked after the couple made their orders, "Yoko was one of the lower class spirits while Ivan was one of the upper class ones. There just doesn't seem to be a connection."

"There has to be something we're missing," Carmelita nodded, "A connection we can't see…."

"Are you talking about the victims?" Domo asked, the spirit raccoon suddenly standing by them, making Sly jump.

"Yes Mr. Pierce," Carmelita nodded, "Have you ever seen the two of them interact?"

Domo took a moment to recall something he had seen a while ago, while Hailey walked up the service desk of the café.

"Ice cold cola please," she requested, and she was given one. Hailey thirstily drank it down.

"Now that I think about it," Domo recalled, "I do think there was a time I saw Ivan and Yoko talking."

"What did they talk about?" Sly asked, having to talk over the giggling of Kate and Humphrey, still happy to have been finally reunited.

"It was some kind of argument," Domo tried to remember, "I remember Yoko saying something like "after everything we did together in life, you're abandoning me now?" I only caught the last part of what they were saying while heading to a tub."

"Do you think they were like….a couple?" Sly asked, finding the idea hard to picture in his head.

"I think that is important to note," Carmelita replied to Domo, "Thank you for telling us this."

"Is that supposed to be your swimsuit?" Sly asked, seeing the big puffy garment Domo was wearing.

"My wife insisted I wear this," Domo said, "I told her it's nothing to be embarrassed about…"

…

As the couple conversed further, they suddenly got another surprise guest.

Flying in a broomstick was Botan, a pretty grim reaper from another part of the Spirit World arrived. "Are you Inspector Fox and Constable Cooper?" the blue-haired grim reaper asked the duo.

"That would be us," Sly nodded.

"Koenma would like to see at least one of you in his castle," Botan explained, handing a letter.

Carmelita read off of it. "Dear officers that were summoned by Yubaba: Keeping track of the mortals who pass away from your worlds, I may be able to provide you with information on the people who have been sent to oblivion by the killer. It is of the upmost importance that at least one of you comes with Botan back to my palace."

"It was really hectic just a few hours ago," Botan admitted, "There was a missing item case back at Lord Koenma's palace that needed solving."

"Another mystery?" Sly and Carmelita said in disbelief.

"Yup," Botan nodded, "Here's what had happened…."

….

**Another part of the Spirit World, 1996.**

Koenma, the ruler of the spirit realm was not a stranger to hiring detectives. For generations now, the Spirit World had employed certain mortals to be known as Spirit Detectives, who would help maintain balance between the human and demon worlds.

The most recent hire for spirit detective, a young Japanese man named Yusuke Urameshi was currently in Demon World. As a gradual peace was beginning to form between the two worlds, Yusuke helped to serve as peace keeper.

Koenma was currently going through his palace's archives, looking for an important tape. A few years ago, the previous Spirit Detective, Shinobu Sensui tried to end the world by cutting the barrier between the human and demon worlds, but he managed to be stopped. What helped motivate his actions was seeing the "Chapter Black" video tape, a video recording of the worst actions humanity ever committed. While the tape had been since destroyed by Hiei, one of Yusuke's demon allies, the counterpart tape, Chapter Light, which showed the best actions humanity had ever taken, still existed.

"Now where is it?" Koenma asked himself, going through the archives.

Hiei, as well as Kurama the fox demon and Kuwabara, one of Yusuke's human friends had come to visit Koenma and Botan in the spirit world.

"Whatcha looking for?" Kuwabara asked.

"The Chapter Light video tape," Koenma explained, eventually finding the binding of the box. "Ah ha, here it is!" he grinned, pulling it out, but what he saw next made him frown.

"What seems to be the matter?" Kurama asked.

"The Chapter Light tape isn't here," Koenma said, pulling out the empty box and putting it on display.

…

"You think it's missing?" Kurama asked, as Koenma searched the immediate shelves, "With the mess the Spirit World archives are, you don't think you might've simply misplaced it?"

"No Kurama, that can't be the case," Koenma admitted, "The items of such importance like the Chapters Light and Black tape are always kept in the same location."

"Then maybe someone just gave it a watch," Kuwabara suggested, "If that tape really contains nothing but good stuff, maybe someone here just needed a batch of optimism."

"Then count me out as a suspect," Hiei snarked, setting down to rest for the day.

"Again, it's very unlikely that that was the case," Koenma explained to the human being with hyper spiritual awareness. "The review of the most important documents and files here in the palace is coming within 2 days. With me trying to help out with the situation at Yubaba's I've been distracted for a little while now. I've explicitly told the staff here to not lay their hands or claws on the Chapter Light until after the review."

"Could've you have simply made a copy of it?" Kuwabara suggested.

"Kuwabara, there's a reason I didn't choose you to be the new spirit detective," Koenma sighed, though Kuwabara's grades over the past year saw a vast improvement over before he began fighting demons and other bad guys.

…..

Kurama and Kuwabara volunteered to help find the missing tape.

"After fighting demons and evil human psychics, searching for a lost video tape is a real step down," Kuwabara commented.

"I guess when you're on the side of good sometimes you can't pick your missions," Kurama replied as they pushed other tapes to the side and looking inside some boxes.

Koenma told them that the tape had special properties that would trigger an alarm if someone tried to take it out of the palace, so they knew that it had to be still inside.

Hiei, not surprisingly, chose not to help. In his own words, "He knew little of hugs and puppies and cared for them even less."

As Kuwabara got a close look at some of the titles, there was something that caught his eye.

"What on earth?" the human gasped, "Why does Koenma have a copy of Kung Fu Creatures on the Rampage 2 here?"

Koenma sweated, a little embarrassed. "You saw how Genkai played on a home gaming console right?" he pointed out to Kuwabara, "Even we spirits have adopted your human forms of entertainment."

"Interesting," Kuwabara chuckled, pulling out the movie and reading off the label. It was the same as a copy he could find in a video store back in his city, the movie was rated PG-13 and had a running time of 87 minutes, according to the box. "I haven't seen this in years, could I watch it?" Kuwabara grinned cheekily.

Koenma sighed, it looked as though no progress was getting made, so this wouldn't hurt the situation any further, "You might as well. I think I can get George the ogre to pull up a TV.

"I can help hook it up," Kurama said. In his more human form he used in the spirit world, Kurama was a straight-A student who was in several extracurricular clubs, including the local high school's AV club. He was quite the tech whiz, he knew how to hook up cords as well as he was a master fox thief demon's reincarnation.

"All right," Kuwabara grinned, getting ready to watch a movie he loved from his youth, "Do you have popcorn here in the Spirit World?"

"Don't push your luck," Koenma replied, as George the ogre came in with a tv on which Kuwabara could watch the movie.

…..

After Kurama set the movie up, 90 minutes later Kuwabara had finished watching the movie.

"That was even more epic then I remember," Kuwabara grinned, "Though now given my spirit sword, I'm far more impressive than anything on screen."

"Don't give yourself too much credit," Hiei said, waking up for a moment.

"I thought you were taking a nap shorty," Kuwabara taunted in reply, as Hiei was the shortest of Yusuke's group.

"I'm glad to see that some things among you all never change," Koenma said, as Botan flew in on her broomstick.

"You wanted to see me here, sir?" the cute grim reaper asked.

"I need you to deliver a message to Yubaba's bathhouse," Koenma explained to Botan, "This is for the two officers from one of the mortal worlds that she had called for. I may be able to help them solve their mystery."

"Is the message ready?" Botan asked.

"Not yet," Koenma sighed, rubbing his forehead to help with the headache he was developing, "A lot of the staff are on break, I'll need to finish writing it myself, plus we have to find the missing Chapter Light tape!"

"The Chapter Light tape is missing?" Botan frowned, "This just has not been our day, has it sir?" she asked.

"It hasn't," Koenma nodded in response.

…..

"Did you see any suspicious characters or footprints around this room Koenma?" Kuwabara asked, hoping to help solve the case.

"No, I can't say I have," the ruler of the spirit world replied, "The only demons I saw are the ones who work here or usually stop by."

"Then there's a good chance the Chapter Light tape is still in this room," Kurama figured, informing the others, "We can't give up on search just yet."

It was then, at that moment, in a fit of clumsiness, Kuwabara accidently knocked a few tapes off of the shelves of the Spirit World archives. He tried to catch them, but they hit the floor and broke open.

"Oh crap, sorry!" Kuwabara apologized to Koenma.

By this point, Koenma had gone through a lot of hell that day that this honestly didn't bother him.

"Meh, no harm done Kuwabara," Koenma informed him, "These aren't any of the really important tapes anyway."

As Koenma went to put the reels back in their tape, he got a closer look at the film. He noticed something odd pertaining to them. The connections on some of the tape looked very uneven, like there had been an uneven editing job.

It was with this amount of information that Koenma was beginning to realize just what had happened in this room earlier, he began to laugh heartily.

"What's so funny sir?" Botan asked.

"I know where the Chapter Light tape is," Koenma revealed.

….

"You do?" Kuwabara asked, surprised, "Where is it?"

"The Chapter Light tape is hidden all over this room," Koenma explained to those around him.

"What do you mean by that?" Botan asked.

"We're dealing with a rather crafty thief," Koenma explained, "And that's how I was able to figure out that the culprit is you, Kurama."

Kurama gave a light, gentle smirk. "Oh really?" he asked Koenma, "What makes you peg me as the culprit?"

"I was looking at the tapes Kuwabara had knocked over just now," Koenma explained, "And I noticed that there had been an odd edit to the film inside. And that's when I realized, someone tampered with a lot of tapes all over these archives."

"Really?" Hiei asked, getting moderately interested in what was going on, he had gotten up from his nap.

"When Kuwabara was watching Kung Fu Creatures on the Rampage 2…..wow I cannot believe I said that out loud," Koenma continued, saying that last part mostly to himself, "I saw that the movie ran for approximately 90 minutes. And yet the side of the box says the movie is only 97 minutes, so how was the film able to run longer? Because you edited in film from Chapter Light to it. That movie is so weird that if you kept the audio from the action movie, Kuwabara wasn't able to notice the "new footage" if you will."

"And still, why by that deduction would I be the only suspect?" Kurama asked.

"Hiei would've just simply messed the place up, Kuwabara here wouldn't be interested in the tape, and the big clue was the fact you're with your high school's AV club, so you would have the knowledge on how to edit film into other video tapes," Koema replied, going through the suspect list one by one, nailing down why Kurama had to be the thief.

"Well, you figured me out," Kurama complimented.

"Why on earth would you do this Kurama?" Koenma asked.

"I merely intended to create a copy for myself," Kurama explained to the ruler of the Spirit World.

"I'm impressed Kurama," Hiei complimented, "Even for an inconsequential matter like this, you still strategize effectively."

"Just promise me you'll edit the Chapter Light tape back to normal in one VHS," Koenma requested.

"See," Kuwabara grinned, "If I hadn't asked to watch Kung Fu Creatures on the Rampage 2, we never would have solved the case."

"I'll give you a point there Kuwabara," Kurama smirked, the clever fox demon occasionaly was not above Hiei levels of teasing his friends.

Koenma went back to his office, the Chapter Light situation resolved, and started to finish writing the letter intended for Sly and Carmelita.

"And, sign my name, and done," he grinned, sealing the letter and handing it over to Botan. "Take this to Yubaba's bathhouse and find the two mortal cops right away," he advised the grim reaper.

"I'm right on it sir," Botan nodded, taking off into the sky with her broom.

…

"And that's how I ended up here," Botan explained to the raccoon and the fox.

"Even for a mystery that one was just kinda weird," Sly said in regards to the case of the missing tape that showed the best humanity had to offer.

"So, is one of you going to come back with me to Lord Koenma's palace of what?" Botan asked.

"I'll go," Carmelita volunteered. She then turned to Sly. "We have each other's numbers," she reminded her husband, "If you end up finding a breakthrough in the case, contact me immediately."

"You do the same," Sly smiled, giving Carmelita a quick kiss before she departed with the blur haired grim reaper.

Sly turned back and looked at the spirits enjoying the baths. "And I hope it's soon," the thief thought, "I know we have to be running out of time before the killer strikes again…"


	13. Final Vengeance

**The Toon Files Episode 130: Final Vengeance.**

With most, or rather, pretty much all of his plans to catch the members of the Crimson Sphere gang ended up being complete failures, Bentley figured the best thing the Cooper gang could do was head back to their hideout in Paris.

"I never got to use any of my fireworks," Jing sighed, the young panda girl had a bit of a pyro side to her that she loved to show off in her work with fireworks and general demolition.

"And how did that sniper stay one step ahead of us every time?" the Panda King asked Bentley.

"I don't know," the turtle replied, "My calculations just aren't adding up now…"

Carmen and Sylvia had thankfully managed to avoid seeing the dead bodies that had begun to pile up on the journey, so they weren't traumatized by them.

"Something messin with your membrane, Jing?" Dimitri asked, seeing the Panda King's daughter having a puzzled look on her face.

"I might have to check something out," Jing replied to her friends, heading outside to go check on something.

….

Carmelita was taken aback on how broom flight worked, just managing to keep her balance.

"I could fly slower," Botan offered, seeing Carmelita looking nervous.

"No, no it's fine," Carmelita gulped in reply, making an effort to not look down. Carmelita was great with jumping, great heights were something that bothered her.

"Ok," Botan nodded, subtly slowing down so that Carmelita's nerves could be eased.

"So what will Koenma be able to tell me?" Carmelita asked as they were halfway through the Spirit World leading up to his palace.

"He'll be able to pull up the files on all the victims of the killer," the blue haired grim reaper said, "Plus if there's any suspects you have, he'd be able to give you the files on them, as well."

"Got it," Carmelita nodded, as the broom flew on.

…..

Back in Paris, Jing King went outside to where the Cooper Van was. She had brought her laptop outside with her, as there was a theory she wanted to test.

"Just gotta hook this up," Jing said to herself, plugging the small computer into a socket on the van's wall and turned it on.

She began to slowly walk around the van, keeping the internet on, as it would be needed to test her theory.

Eventually, after taking several steps, the laptop seemed to start to bug up again. "Right here," Jing realized, "What is it about this spot?"

The young panda began to feel around the van, trying to find something suspicious. It was then that an idea popped into her head. "I should check along the outside…" she grinned to herself, stepping out of the van.

Outside, Jing lied down and carefully began to crawl under the Cooper Van. "It has to be somewhere down here," she said, feeling around the bottom of her gang's vehicle.

It was then that Jing found her smoking gun, she grabbed onto something that felt stuck to the van's bottom as opposed to naturally being a part of it.

"Ah, here it is," she grinned, pulling the object out. When she got out from the under the vehicle, she took a close look. It looked like a small electronic device….

…

Back in Yubaba's bathhouse, Sly was working with Haku and Rarity to help solve the case.

"Where there any usual reports from the day since Yoko died?" Sly asked the pony and river spirit that he had worked alongside before.

"There was a bit of a commotion over Wildcat changing the menu the night before and the day after," Rarity said, always one to know about the local gossip, no matter what world she was in.

"I get the feeling people getting upset over Taco Night isn't connected to the murders," Sly figured, twirling his cane as he and the other two got into one of the elevators.

"There was another concern expressed," Haku said as the elevator began to head to the lower levels of the bathhouse, "It was coming from Komanji."

"What did that guy say?" Sly asked Haku.

"He was saying that the tiny ember spirits that work with him in the boiler room were complaining about their path."

"Their path?" Sly raised an eyebrow, as they reached the level of the boiler room.

…..

Sly, Rarity, and Haku made their way down to the boiler room, where Komanji was hard at work. Even with all the extra tubs that had been added to the bathhouse in recent years, the spider spirit's extra arms made it so he never really got tired out.

"Hey Haku, Rarity," Komanji said as he began to take his break, "What brings you here?"

"I came here to ask you some questions," Sly said, the raccoon was now wearing his regular thief clothes as opposed to his Interpol uniform.

"Is this pertaining to the murders?" Komanji asked.

"You're right on the mark," Sly replied, "I was just given word that the smaller ember spirits complained they had their route changed. What did they mean by that?"

"There's a path all of the ember spirits walk to get to the main boiler," Komanji began to explain, "But the other day, they found crates blocking the path. There was a small opening in the wall they said came with a sign labeled "detour."

"Did they know what this detour was?" Sly questioned next.

"It was a pretty narrow route," Komanji said, recalling what the ember spirits had complained to him about, "The halls they walked through were really cramped, and at one point they walked under some metal plates."

"Did this disrupt the baths at all?" Rarity asked, since she was one of Yubaba's employees who didn't have to work directly with the bath tubs all around the place.

"No, they managed to pick up their pace," Komanji replied, "But I know for a fact I did not set up those crates, someone else must've done that."

"But how would that be connected to the murders?" Haku asked.

"If there is a connection, that's something we'll have to figure out," Sly told his friends.

…

Back in Paris, Bentley was doing more hacking on his computer.

"The Murray needs some snacks to help with the feeling of being beaten," Murray sighed, walking over to the pantry.

"I could use some chow, too," Dimitri nodded, the lounge lizard was able to sit down and listen to his music now, but it wasn't really able to cheer him up after what happened.

"I wanna be able to handcuff this guy," Sylvia frowned, holding a pair of handcuffs her mother had given to her for practice to be a cop.

"I just wanna know who he is," Carmen yawned.

All of a sudden, the door to the hideout slammed open and Jing came running inside.

"Jing, what is it?" the Panda King asked his daughter, concerned.

"I think I might know what's going on around here," she grinned, walking over to Bentley and showing him the device she had found. "This was under the team van."

"Holy cow," Bentley said, one of the metal arms attached to his wheelchair picking up the small device, "This is a sensory listening bug!"

"A what?" Murray and the others gasped.

"This is a device that allows listening in on our conversations, it's even more advanced than the ones we can get on ThiefNet!" Bentley explained.

"That means…." The Panda King realized, "The whole time we were hunting for the Crimson Sphere Gang, the sniper was simply listening to us and following our directions!"

"I flipped it to offline as soon as I found it," Jing explained.

"But who could've done this?" Carmen asked, she and Sylvia were both really interested in the mystery now.

"We've been working for the culprit the whole time and we didn't even realize it," Bentley said, "But I've just come up with a plan on how we can fight back."

"Let's do this!" Murray grinned.

…

Back in the Spirit World, Sly wanted to investigate the Ivan Stanton murder scene again.

As he was walking through the halls, he passed Darrell Chimer, who had just finished taking a bath in one of the tubs.

"You're the mortal constable right?" the smug goat asked.

"That's who I am," Sly nodded, getting the same bad vibes Carmelita got from this guy.

"Please figure out who killed Ivan," he requested, "He and I go back from when we were in our world."

"I'll be sure to do that," Sly nodded, as he headed towards the train.

"And on that same note," Hailey said, the cheetah suddenly walking up, "Find out who killed Yoko!"

"Let me get to that," Sly asked both parties nervously, as they all walked in their separate directions.

…

Sly got back onto the train which was still parked along the flooded rails outside Yubaba's.

"I'll take you back to the bathhouse on this boat," Lin offered.

"Thanks Lin," Sly replied, climbing back onto the train.

Because the train had padded carpeting (It was meant as a luxury for the spirits, and not a trip into the afterlife), Sly was able to pick up plenty of footprints that had been left on the train, even though there had not been a lot of people on it for around a day now.

"This might be a promising clue," Sly smirked, pulling out his magnifying glass and looking at the ground close to Ivan's cabin on the train.

Sly got a few clues by doing this, but not quite what he was hoping for. "These were the prints that came from when Quistis, myself, and the others examined the scene," he realized.

There was thing that Sly was able to note from examining the scene both by and inside the door: For all the foot and paw prints he could find, none of them had any signs of hoof prints.

"Since we know the train never stopped at a station," Sly spoke out loud, "I don't think that Darrell guy could have done this."

The raccoon could've sworn he suddenly heard a growl, but we he went to check, he couldn't find anyone in the train or right outside either.

"Time to go check the bathroom again," Sly said, walking to where Ivan's body had been discovered.

"This would have been an ample time to attack him, given his guard would've been down at this moment, but still, how could they have managed to not cause much of a struggle?" he asked himself.

When he was taking a closer look at the tub, something caught Sly's eye. It was something that was in the tub's drain. Using his family's cane combined with his pickpocketing skills, Sly lifted the object out of the drain.

"Is this…ice?" Sly asked, seeing the partially melted remains of some cubes, "What is this doing here?"

The raccoon then had an idea, but he needed to check with the scene of Yoko's death one more time.

….

Over in the other part of the Spirit World, Carmelita had met up with Koenma, Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara.

"Nice to meet a fellow fox, even if you're not a demon," Kurama said, shaking Carmelita's paw.

"The feeling's mutual," Carmelita replied.

"So Inspector Fox," Koenma asked, "Here on the files on the two victims," he said, handing her the ones for Yoko and Ivan.

"Thank you," Carmelita nodded, as she began to look them over. She had a feeling about these two, and when she read the file, she saw that her feeling had been confirmed. She scowled at what she read.

"There are some other spirits I'll want you to look up," she told Koenma next, "Their names are Nica and Domo Pierce, Hailey Martin, and Darrell Chimer."

"Coming right up," Koenma said, going over to find the files of these deceased people.

"Man, this day has been weird for us," Kuwabara commented.

"It's not at all, you know that," Hiei snarked.

Koenma eventually returned with the files on the suspects. "I was able to find all but one of the requested ones," he explained.

"Don't tell me you lost that too," Kurama chuckled lightly.

"It's not that," Koenma replied, "This person did not show up in the Spirit World archives at all."

"Just give me the rest," Carmelita requested, and she began to read the files over to see what information she could uncover about the other suspects in the case.

"Hm…" she pondered, when all of a sudden, her phone rang.

…..

It was of course Sly who was on the other end of the line. "Hey Carmelita, I think you're gonna want to hear this," he grinned.

"What is it ringtail?" Carmelita asked.

"I looked back at the scene where Yoko died," Sly explained, "And I found out some very important details we missed."

"Tell me," Sly's wife said next.

"I saw that there had been cuts made towards the center of the floorboards," Sly read off from his notes, "And that's not all."

"Keep going," Carmelita encouraged.

"I looked around the top of the room and near the top of the wall, there were marks like something had been attached to them. And there's one more thing."

"What is it?" Carmelita asked.

"It was hard to tell because the body was burned up, but upon very very close examination, I was able to see that there are rope marks on Yoko's body, like she was tied up right before the fire," Sly revealed.

"I see," Carmelita nodded.

"Carmelita, I think I know who the killer is," Sly told her, "But for the life of me I can't figure out why this person would do this."

"I think I've figured out the motive," Carmelita replied seriously, looking over the files of the other suspects, in the section pertaining to place of birth and species.

"Nice!" Sly grinned, when all of a sudden he heard a loud crash. He looked out the door of the room he was standing in. "Um….Carmelita, you may want to get back here."

"What's going on Sly?" Carmelita asked, concerned.

…..

The big dark spirit, a hulking, beast with tentacles that many residents of the bathhouse had seen but never a chance to see up close, was rampaging through the hallways!

"Everyone get outside!" Haku called the residents who were panicking and beginning to flee.

However, there were several who chose to fight. There was Yubaba of course, as well as Blaze, Haku, Shifu, and William Dunbar, the former Lyoko warrior who had been killed at the start of the Ghostface rampage 21 years ago, who had been given a real sword for training in the spirit world.

"We got to stop this!" Yubaba yelled to the group, using her wind magic to try to knock the dark spirit over.

Sly used his Ninja Spire jump he had learned from his Japanese ancestor Rioichi to climb the oriental lamps to get to the upper levels of the bathhouse that the dark spirit was attacking.

"Whoa, I almost missed the party," Sly laughed, wanting to join the battle.

"This is not the time for jokes Sly," Rarity said as she and Quistis ran up to join the fight as well. Rarity was armed with her magic, Quistis with her whip.

"There has to be a way we can lure this beast into a trap," Quistis strategized, as Sly and Rarity climbed to the higher levels to fight the beast.

Haku turned into his dragon form and blasted some water at the dark spirit to try to knock it back. It seemed to be doing the trick, but then the spirit took off down one of the hallways.

"We can't let it get away!" Yubaba called, flying towards the dark spirit.

"The way it's moving…" Sly noted, "It seems to be looking for something…"

…

The group chased the Dark spirit further through the bathhouse. The dark spirit took on more of an evasive strategy as it focused on keeping the distance between itself and its pursuers.

"What the heck is this thing trying to do?" William called, firing sword blasts at it that only slowed it down for a second each.

Sly was using the rail slide he had picked up from his old west outlaw ancestor Tennessee Kid Cooper to slide along and try and keep up with the dark spirit.

"Take this!" Rarity exclaimed, firing magic blasts out of her horn at the dark spirit. It managed to trip it up, but as the others got close in an attempt to contain in, the dark spirit knocked them back with a blast of fire breath.

"Whoa, that's a scorcher!" Sly exclaimed, watching the scene from up above. As he was sliding along the lights above, he got a view of what looked like to be a weak spot on top of the dark spirit's head. "My time to shine!" he grinned, going for a leaping strike with his cane.

However, the dark spirit turned and saw Sly falling towards him. Seeing the raccoon armed with a weapon, the spirit opened its mouth wide.

"Uh oh," Sly gasped, unable to change his direction mid jump. He closed his eyes, hoping he wouldn't get devoured.

But all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the spirit was struck in the mouth by several shock blasts, and was knocked back.

Sly immediately realized what this was. "That's my girl's shock pistol," he smiled, seeing Carmelita standing across the room, armed with her signature Interpol weapon.

"Where would you be without me, ringtail?" Carmelita chuckled, "Besides in jail, of course."

All of a sudden, the dark spirit, after managing to recover from the shock pistol blast, it ran down a hallway that was unguarded and jumped out the window.

But when Haku and the others looked out the window, the dark spirit was nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd it go?" Haku frowned.

Carmelita explained what she had learned to Sly, and both had an idea of where that spirit had gone.

"Let everyone back in," Sly told Yubaba.

….

One by one, as the spirits of both classes began to go back into Yubaba's bathhouse, Sly and Carmelita were watching everyone come back in.

"Thanks for your help in stopping that spirit," Shifu and Simba told Carmelita.

"Don't mention it," Carmelita responded, looking around for a certain few people.

Eventually, after a few minutes, the Interpol couple were able to find Nica and Domo, as well as Hailey and Darrell among the crowd of spirits.

"Glad to see you're all ok," Sly said to them.

"Why thank you, Constable Cooper," Nica smiled to the raccoon.

"Could you all come into this room with us?" Carmelita requested of the 4.

"What's the purpose of this?" Darrell asked.

"To reveal who the killer is," Sly said bluntly.

…

"What?!" the 4 gasped as they stepped into the small side room.

"The killer's in this very room," Sly said next.

"How could it be any of us?" Domo asked, "We overheard some of the things you said, all of us have an alibi for at least 1 of the murders."

"Let's start with the second murder this time around," Carmelita began, "Ivan was found in the bathtub of his train car stabbed. According to our examinations, the time of death was to have been at night, after the train had departed."

"That's what you said," Hailey nodded, "So we who weren't on the train couldn't have been the killer, right?"

"That would be true, Hailey," Sly nodded, "Up until I found some ice cubs in the drain of the tub."

"Ice cubes?" Darrell asked, confused.

"The bath had been filled in ice cubs that covered the body," Carmelita explained, "The massive temperature difference on the body can alter things like the supposed time of death."

Every one of the suspects gasped. "So what you're saying is…."

"The killer still could be any of you. One of you stabbed Ivan before the train took off and stuffed the bathtub with ice to throw off the time of death."

"But then who's the killer?" Domo asked.

"This is where the first murder comes into play…" Carmelita continued.

…..

In another world, Bentley and the rest of the Cooper Gang had tracked down the next Crimson Sphere gang member, but this time they had planned a way to take down the sniper. After uncovering who it was via his hacking, Bentley turned to the transceiver bug back on long after they had hit the road to inform the culprit who was listening in on where they were going.

Bentley had Murray, Dimtri, and the Panda King go in to catch the Crimson Sphere member while he and Jing went to confront the culprit.

Knowing that the sniper would want to keep to his modus operandi, the genius turtle figured where he would try to take the shot, and much to his delight, he was right.

As the culprit was setting up his weapon, Bentley stealthily rolled over to him.

"Having trouble with the old sniper rifle, eh….Officer Snyder?" he asked, making the rabbit turn around in surprise, revealing it was, indeed, him.

"Hey…aren't you one of the Cooper Gang?" Brent asked, "I'm doing an Interpol job with a dangerous criminal, this is not your protocol."

"No, you're seeking to kill every member of the Crimson Spheres you can," Jing said, stepping forward, "You were using us this whole time so you could find your quarry."

"I thought back to when you brought the files over to Sly and Carmelita," Bentley explained, "You must've realized what they were intending us to do, so as you handed them the files, you planted the tracer on our van and you had us lead you to them."

"This is how we knew the culprit wasn't a member of the gang themselves," Jing said.

"Stay back!" Brent called, pulling a knife, "I don't want to hurt you….I want to hurt them! They killed my family, they don't deserve to live!""

"Brent, do you know about the spirit world?" Jing asked suddenly, "Your family's spirits live on there. If they saw what you're doing now, especially since we know what good people they were from articles, do you think they'd be proud?"

Brent froze, hating to face the harsh truth. He tried to keep the knife held up, but he let it drop to the floor, where he then fell down, crying. "I'm…..I'm so sorry…" he said, under his breath, catching tears.

"At least you've managed to prevent your soul from falling in total darkness," Jing said poetically, as Sylvia was finally able to slap her handcuffs on a culprit, two counting the Crimson Sphere member they were able to track down alive.

…

"You're the killer….Hailey Martin!" Carmelita pointed.

"What? Me?! How could you accuse me of that?!" the cheetah demanded to know.

"Because of your knowledge of metal shop," Sly explained, "The detour Komanji said the ember spirits had to take struck me as odd, but then I realized that's how you managed to fry Yoko without burning up the whole room: You replaced the wooden floor with metal tiles, which the heat of the embers raised up to non-survivable conditions. That's why I found rope marks on Yoko's body: to keep her on the ground, unable to move."

"And that's why the wood marks scratched," Carmelita kept going, "You had to lift the old floor up to make your trick work, you just hoped people wouldn't notice."

"But why would Hailey do this?" Nica asked, shocked, "She's such a nice girl…."

"Because she wanted revenge," Carmelita replied, "For the death of her….and you two, all those years ago."

"Why would she want to avenge us?" Domo asked, "Unless….she's….." his voice trailed off as he began to realize the implications.

"She's your daughter," Sly revealed, "Koenma told Carmelita how they could not find a file on a "Hailey Martin", and that's when we began to figure that that was not her real name. Your real name is Carly Pierce, isn't it?"

Suddenly, before their very eyes, "Hailey" turned from a cheetah back into a raccoon, making Nica and Domo gasp. "How did you know?" Carly asked.

"When I saw you desperate to get the soda," Sly explained, "Tanuki keep drinking that to keep up a transformation, and why Nica here made Domo where that swimsuit….she didn't want him displaying his…."pouch."

"The two victims," Carmelita continued, "Were both members of the Crimson Sphere Gang, the ones who killed all 3 of you. But since they killed you 2 before your daughter, you didn't realize she had died, and we were told that spirits that die young are allowed to grow up, so she created a new identity and began to plan revenge all this time…"

"Oh Carly," Nica cried, she and Domo embracing their daughter, seeing her properly for the first time in several years.

"I'm so sorry mom and dad…" Carly cried.

"So what happens now?" Sly asked Carmelita, "From what I've told, this place doesn't exactly have a police force."

"She'll have to work as a servant to pay off the damages," Haku said, appearing suddenly, "Yubaba isn't one to get rid of potential customers, no matter what they did."

"At least our son Brent still lives," Domo said to his wife as they began to leave the room.

…..

Sly had gone with Haku to check on how the Pierce family was doing, while Carmelita told Darrell to stay in the room.

"What do you want with me? You solved the case," the goat said.

"The current case yes," Carmelita replied with a smirk, "Past matters, not quite yet."

Carmelita snapped her fingers, and in a puff of smoke, Belladonna and Twilight appeared.

"What the hell?!" Darrell exclaimed.

"Such an appropriate choice of words," Belladonna grinned, as usually her powers, a magic, hellish circle began to form around the goat.

"What is this?" he demanded to know.

"Oh, it was a while ago, I can't blame you for forgetting," Carmelita chuckled with a smirk, "A couple of years before you and those two members of your gang died in an accident, on the night you killed the Pierce family before they could testify against you, you also killed a cop. I know you're a Crimson Sphere gang member."

"What the?" Darrell gasped, as his secret had been uncovered.

"Why do you think Yubaba called for mortals to investigate this case?" Carmelita asked, "Because a while ago, I paid her a visit. I gave her a list of names of suspected dead members of your gang, yourself included, and I had her contact me if there was an incident pertaining to them, and there was, as we well know."

"But what's with the hellhound and hellhorse?" Darrell asked the fox.

"Because you were never properly sentenced for your actions," Carmelita explained, "Since Belladonna works for the big red guy, she can send corrupt souls to Hell even if they're already here."

"But why are you doing this to me?!" Darrell asked, genuinely scared.

"That I'll leave for you to figure out in your eternity of suffering for your crime," Carmelita grinned.

"Nice doing business with you," Twilight smiled to the fox.

"I never realized hoe devious you could be," Belladonna grinned as they began dragging the goat into Hell.

"NNNNNOOOOOOO!" Darrell screamed as he disappeared from the bathhouse forever.

…..

Before heading back to her world, there was someone Carmelita needed to see. She found Miguel and his group of friends.

"Father, it's done," Carmelita smiled to Miguel, tears in her eyes. She went over and hugged her father.

"Oh my baby," Miguel replied, hugging his daughter back, "You grew up to be the bright, strong, and beautiful woman I always knew you would."

"I just wish you could've seen me grow up in person," Carmelita cried a bit.

"Indeed," Miguel nodded, "The night I was killed by the Crimson Spheres, the one comforting thought I had as I was dying was that you and your mother were not hurt or in danger. I'm so glad you managed to bring the perps to justice without killing them."

"I had to pull some strings," Carmelita chuckled lightly in reply.

"I'll try talking with Yubaba and see if I can form a spirit link so I can talk with you more often," Miguel said to Carmelita.

"I'd like that," Carmelita smiled, as she hugged her dad goodbye and went off to meet Sly.

"We got great souvenirs for helping out," Sly grinned, "And I didn't even have to steal any of them!"

"Oh Sly…" the fox chuckled.

"Say, what took you back there?" Sly asked his wife.

"Oh, just taking care of some unfinished business," Carmelita replied with a smirk. After the years of being tricked by Sly's claims of amnesia, she thought it was only fair she got to keep a secret from him.

"Bye! Take care!" Rarity, Haku, and Quistis waved to the Interpol officers.

"Come again soon, if you're not dead," Quistis added with a chuckle.

"Bye!" Sly and Carmelita said as they walked down the tunnel that took them back to the realm of the mortals.

…

At long last, Sly and Carmelita had finished with their Interpol jobs for the day and were able to head home.

They stopped by the Cooper Gang's hideout, of course, to pick up their daughters.

"it's a crazy story," Bentley informed his best friend, "But after catching a sniper who, get this, was one of your fellow officers, I think we can safely say the Crimson Spheres are going to be brought down pretty soon…."

"That's great Bentley," Sly smiled, as his daughters ran up to him and Carmelita and hugged them.

"You missed so much!" Sylvia smiled.

"It was epic!" Carmen nodded.

"Eh, your mother and father had their own adventure, don't worry girls," Carmelita grinned.

"I love a happy shindig," Dimitri smiled, tearing up happily.

"Are you guys going to come out for the fireworks?" Jing called.

"Fireworks?" Carmelita asked.

"Since we weren't able to find a use for them during the case," the Panda King explained, "We thought, why not give Paris a great fireworks show?"

"Plus, I get to unleash the flames," Jing grinned, launching the first few which resulted in beautiful bursts of color in the air.

"Wow…" Everyone awed, the panda family's skills for fireworks had only gotten better over the years.

"I'm loving this," Sly smiled, simply sitting back and relaxing, thoughts not on Interpol or thieving.

"This is great," Carmelita nodded, enjoying watching the show with her friends and family.

…

And so once again, one truth was able to prevail. There were plenty of surprises along the way, but that applies to life in general. A keen eye for detail is something very useful.

Case closed.


End file.
